A solid oxide fuel cell system was installed at the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology to simulate a typical residential installation and to gather data about fuel cell performance.
The five-kilowatt SOFC system will run on natural gas and uses tubular solid oxide technology developed by Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation. The second-generation system features important improvements from earlier installations including gas-powered heat-up to allow the unit to be started without an additional electrical power source; the ability to use low fuel pressures; and the elimination of the purge gas - an expensive gas mixture that was required to protect the cell stacks during system startup and shutdown.
{ 0 comments… Your thoughts? }