A 100 kW solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has completed a contracted operational period of two years in Westervoort, the Netherlands. The cell was supplied to EDB/ELSAM, a consortium of Dutch and Danish utilities, by Siemens Westinghouse.
The high temperature fuel cell system was originally delivered for startup in December 1997. After 4035 h of operation it was returned to the USA for modification. It restarted in March 1999 and completed close to 12 600 h of operation before it was shut down last November. This unit will now be moved to a new site for continued operation. At the point of shutdown the SOFC was providing 110 kW with an electrical efficiency of over 46 per cent and 65 kW of hot water to the local district heating system.
Emissions of NOx, SOx, CO and VHCs were all below 1ppmv, Siemens Westinghouse claims. There was apparently no degradation in performance after rebuilding the fuel cell stack. The company is planning to commercialise SOFC technology, developed under an agreement with the US Department of Energy, with cogeneration systems in the 250kW to 1 MW range, available in 2004.
