Mass-market production of fuel cells will be a strong factor in reducing first costs. In this respect, joining the forces of two non-competing sectors (automotive and stationary) will bring benefits to both, to increase production volume and ultimately reduce costs to make fuel cells competitive. As a consequence, the project partners have identified a PEM fuel cell based CHP concept to address the stationary power market, primarily for commercial and industrial buildings requiring an installed capacity from about 50 kWe to some hundreds of kWe. The main components of the system have been validated to at least laboratory scale (TRL>4).
As a part of the present AutoRE proposal, the overall system will be demonstrated and further validated to increase the technology readiness level to TRL5. In addition, innovative solutions will be demonstrated to continuously improve performance and reduce costs and complexity. The project consortium reflects the full value chain of the fuel cell CHP system, which will enhance significantly the route to market for the system/technology.
More specifically, the project has the following objectives:
- build and validate a first 50 kW PEM prototype CHP system
- create the required value chain from automotive manufacturers to stationary energy end-users
- develop system components allowing reduced costs, increased durability and efficiency
SINTEF will contribute to AutoRE with Pd-alloy membrane technology for replacing the PSA process, WGS stage, and, potentially, for integration in the reformer for further performance enhancement of the fuel processor. In this respect, SINTEF will evaluate the operational performance and stability of the Pd-alloy membrane technology in WGS-based processes, integrated as a membrane separator module (M-SEP) and integrated in a membrane-WGS (M-WGS) reactor.
Coordinator
- ALSTOM POWER LTD, United Kingdom
Participants
- GENERAL ELECTRIC (SWITZERLAND) GMBH, Switzerland
- DAIMLER AG, Germany
- ELVIO ANONYMI ETAIREIA SYSTIMATON PARAGOGIS YDROGONOU KAI ENERGEIAS, Greece
- SVEUCILISTE U SPLITU, FAKULTET ELEKTROTEHNIKE, STROJARSTVA I BRODOGRADNJE, Croatia
- UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DELLA TUSCIA, Italy
- STIFTELSEN SINTEF, Norway
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under GA No. 671396
