WORLD
Norway-US Project Developing Diesel/Biodiesel, Cool Flame Reformer and Solid-Acid Fuel Cell APU
Baku, October 26 (AZERTAC). Norway`s Nordic Power Systems (NPS) and California-based SAFCell Inc., in collaboration with Caltech, are testing the combination of a cool flame fuel reformer and a solid-acid fuel cell (SAFC) as the core components of a new electric auxiliary power unit (APU). The power supply unit can run on biodiesel as well as regular diesel.
In trials, a 250-W solid-acid fuel cell stack ran on both pure hydrogen and on hydrogen produced from diesel by the unit`s reformer, with only an insignificant difference in performance. This result, noted SAFCell, showed that the fuel cell could operate with up to 10% CO without any effect on the performance.
The electric generator is being developed and produced by the Norwegian company Nordic Power Systems (NPS). SAFCell Inc., established to market and commercialize the solid acid fuel cell (SAFC) technology developed and patented at the California Institute of Technology, is delivering the stack. Dag Øvrebø, Technical Director of NPS, has been working closely with Caltech on this technology.
The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway under its RENERGI program. The project has an overall budget of NOK 11.8 million (US$2 million), with NOK 5.9 million(US$1 million) of funding under the RENERGI program.
The current generation of SAFCell stacks operate at mid-range temperatures around 250 °C, and tolerate fuel impurities that pose obstacles to other fuel cell technologies. This allows SAFCell stacks to run more easily on commercially available gas fuels (e.g., propane and butane) or liquid fuels (e.g., methanol, diesel and bio-oils), further reducing the overall fuel cell system complexity and cost.