Residential Fuel Cell Development Reaches Practical Stage

Nippon Oil Corporation of Japan announced on January 8, 2003, that they have completed the development of the world¡Çs first practical model of a 1-kilowatt polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) using liquefied petroleum gas.

The company aims to launch full-scale sales of this unit after final third-party reliability and durability testing under actual home-use conditions.

Six PEFC units are to be installed for sample testing in single family housing, apartment complexes, and display homes mainly in the Kanto area, which includes Tokyo and six nearby prefectures, from January to March 2003. The first unit will be set up in Yokohama by the end of January. The company will introduce about 100 additional practical PEFC units after April to move on to the full-scale application tests.

On the same day as the Nippon Oil announcement, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. also announced that it would deliver two sample residential PEFC units that run on city natural gas for evaluation of systems for practical home power generation. Mitsubishi will provide another ten sample units to various customers after spring.



Posted: 2003/03/02 03:46:45 PM
Japanese version