Fuel solution

has awarded a subcontract to FuelCell Energy under a US Department of Energy (DOE) Co-operative Agreement to evaluate, design and demonstrate a next-generation Hydrogen Energy Station (HES).

The HES will build upon FuelCell Energy's Direct FuelCell (DFC) power plants and Air Products' advanced gas separation technologies. The HES is directed toward co-producing hydrogen for vehicle fuelling and electrical power from a single system. The HES effort will be directed toward a capability of using readily available fuels such as natural gas, propane and anaerobic digester gas from municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities.

“Air Products believes that the HES can potentially be competitive with other distributed hydrogen generation technologies," said Greg Keenan, business development manager for Future Energy Solutions at Air Products. Several locations are being evaluated for the demonstration of the HES, presently scheduled to be on-stream in 2007.

"We are currently commercialising our DFC power plants for combined heat and power applications in the US, Europe and Asia," said Dr. Hansraj C. Maru, FuelCell Energy's chief technology officer. "Making hydrogen available locally for other applications, such as automotive fuel cells, enhances the value proposition of our DFC products."