Page 311 - Biofuels Refining and Performance
P. 311

290   Chapter Nine


           industrial facilities; and distributed power generation systems for util-
           ities. Although some demonstration and commercial stationary fuel cell
           power plants in sizes from a few kilowatts to 11 MW are in operation,
           widespread commercialization can be expected only if their installation
           cost drops down from the present cost of $4000/kW to about $400–700/kW
           (or about $1000/kW for some premium applications).
             The recent surge of interest in fuel cell technology is because of its
           potential use in transportation applications, including personal vehicles.
           This development is being sponsored by various governments in North
           America, Europe, and Japan, as well as by major automobile manufac-
           turers worldwide, who have invested several billion dollars with the
           goal of producing a high-efficiency and low-emission fuel cell power
           plant at a cost that is competitive with the existing internal combustion
           engines. With hydrogen as the onboard fuel, such vehicles would be
           zero-emission vehicles. With fuels other than hydrogen, an appropriate
           fuel processor to convert the fuel to hydrogen will be needed. Fuel cell-
           powered vehicles offer the advantages of electric drive and low mainte-
           nance, because of the few critical moving parts. The major activity in
           transportation fuel cell development has focused on the polymer elec-
           trolyte fuel cell (PEFC), and many of the technical objectives related to
           the fuel cell stack have been met or are close to being met. The current
           development efforts are focused on decreasing cost and resolving issues
           related to fuel supply and system integration.
             Besides exotic areas of applications such as space vehicles or sub-
           marines, another very promising area of application for fuel cells is
           portable power systems. Portable power systems are small, lightweight
           systems that power portable devices (e.g., computers, laptops, cellular
           phones, and entertainment electronic devices), camping and recreational
           vehicles, military applications in the field, and so forth. These devices
           need power in the range of a few watts to a few hundred watts. Fuel cell
           systems based on DMFC or PEMFC technology are well suited for many
           of these applications. The convenience of transporting and storing liquid
           methanol makes DMFC systems very attractive for this application. A
           small container of methanol or a cylinder of compressed hydrogen can
           be used as a fuel supply. When the fuel is depleted, a new fuel container
           may be installed in its place after removing the old one.
             In recent years, there has been a lot of interest in electric power gen-
           eration using renewable energy sources such as wind energy, solar
           energy, and tidal energy. A major problem with these energy sources is
           that all are intermittent in nature. Combining the renewable energy-
           based power generation system with a fuel cell system would solve this
           problem to a great extent. A hybrid wind/solar energy–fuel cell system
           can use wind/solar power for generating hydrogen using the electroly-
           sis of water, and store it in cylinders at high pressure. This hydrogen can
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