Colorado Fuel Cell Center now powering Mines campus
November 30, 2023
The research team at the Colorado Fuel Cell Center is now powering the Mines electrical grid as part of a U.S. Department of Energy program on low-carbon, distributed electricity generation. The program is managed through DoE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), and features a fuel-cell / reciprocating engine hybrid system targeting 100 kW of net electricity generation at 70% efficiency under natural gas fuel, more than double the efficiency of today’s conventional electric generators.
The Colorado Fuel Cell Center (CFCC) at the Mines campus is now characterizing the performance of one of three 30-kW solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) modules that will be integrated with an engine at Colorado State University’s Powerhouse Energy Campus. A single fuel-cell module (Figure 1) contains four SOFC stacks that work together to achieve target power levels. The stacks are provided to Mines by research partner and solid-oxide fuel cell developer Ceres Power, Ltd. (Horsham, UK).
The CFCC team includes research staff Chris Cadigan and Chris Chmura, Ph.D. students Cyrus Bousheri and Gus Floerchinger, and faculty members Neal Sullivan (ME), Tyrone Vincent (EE), and Rob Braun (ME). The team characterizes the electrochemical and thermal performance of these “Multi-Stack Modules” within the unique fuel-cell test bed shown in Figure 2. The test bed features pressurization to 10 atmospheres, extensive gas handling for synthesis of a wide range of fuel compositions, and 36-kW of electric-load capacity connected to the Mines electrical grid.
“It seems that we are setting new CFCC power-generation records each time we operate this Multi-Stack Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell Module. Today we generated over 26 kWe of electricity under simulated natural gas fuel and an operating pressure of two atmospheres. This electricity is being used to partially power the CFCC laboratory in which these experiments are being executed. We are collecting extensive data on Multi-Stack Module performance. These data provide insight on fuel-cell module operation that is critical to our successful integration of three of these modules with a reciprocating engine and high-performance turbomachinery. We see this 26-kW power level as an important steppingstone on our journey toward higher power levels and performance.”