A fuel-cell system first: hydrogen, electricity and heat energy
California has seen the commissioning of the world’s first tri-generation fuel cell and hydrogen energy station, which will provide transportation fuel to the public and electric power to the Orange County Sanitation District’s wastewater treatment plant in Fountain Valley.
The fuel cell is called a tri-generation system because it produces hydrogen, electricity and heat. The hydrogen is sent to a public fueling station that can support between 25 and 50 fuel-cell vehicle fill-ups per day. The 250 kilowatts of power generated is used by the wastewater treatment plant.
“By providing the added value of electricity and heat, this approach provides a significant step in overcoming economic challenges with hydrogen refueling infrastructure,” said Steve Chalk, the US Department of Energy’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Energy.
“This is the epitome of sustainability by taking a human waste and transforming it into electricity which we need, and transportation fuel that we need, as well as thermal product heat that could serve the process of transforming the feed waste into productive products,” said Scott Samuelsen, director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine. “This project is at the nexus of the challenge for the next millennium associating how we handle in concert transportation, energy and water resources.”
The fuel cell itself is powered by biogas from the wastewater treatment plant, and produces about 100 kilograms of hydrogen per day. The project was developed by a partnership that includes the US Department of Energy (DOE), the California Air Resources Board, the Orange County Sanitation District and private industry. The project is managed by Air Products, with additional partners including FuelCell Energy Inc. and the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine.
According to the DOE, the system demonstrates the versatility of fuel cells, which can use multiple feedstocks — such as biogas and natural gas — to produce power and renewable hydrogen. The hydrogen can be used to fuel light-duty vehicles such as forklifts or as backup power in applications such as cell phone towers. Primarily running on biogas, the system can also use natural gas if there is any disruption in biogas availability or quality.
“This location will show how well this technology works and can be applied to wastewater and other waste applications to generate hydrogen,” said Ed Heydorn, business development manager for hydrogen energy systems at Air Products. “Another plus is that renewable hydrogen is required to be in the mix in fueling stations in California. We look to this type of technology as a platform to meet the renewable requirement and to supply even cleaner hydrogen to the next generation of fuel-cell vehicles.”
