Energy / Climate Change

March 31, 2003

 

Fuel Cell Cogeneration System Moves Closer to Practical Application

Keywords: Climate Change Environmental Technology Non-manufacturing industry Renewable Energy 

Japan's Ebara Ballard Corporation and Tokyo Gas Company have jointly developed a cogeneration system that employs 1-kilowatt polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFC) for residential-use. The new unit is a combined effort of Ebara Ballard's PEFC technology and Tokyo Gas¡Çs technology to produce hydrogen fuel from natural gas.

Compared to the prototype unit that Ebara Ballard developed a year ago, the heat recovery efficiency of the new system increased from 47 percent to 58 percent, giving a total efficiency rating of 92 percent. Meanwhile, its size was reduced by about 17 percent. In addition, the unit now weighs only half of the previous model developed by Tokyo Gas in October 2000.

This development promotes high efficiency and space saving. As a decentralized electric source, the new cogeneration unit is expected to reduce the cost of equipment for home-use electricity and heat demand, as well as to reduce the use of primary energy and to help lessen impacts on the global environment such as those caused by emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen compounds. The technology has taken a step closer to commercial sales, targeted for 2004.



Posted: 2003/03/31 09:59:22 PM
Japanese version

 

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