Acumentrics Corp. (Westwood, MA) has delivered an additional five, fully integrated, rapid-start, solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC), uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures (Houston, TX) under the terms of a purchase order. Applications for the BB-SOFC™ include outdoor 90Vac broadband backup, and output dc or 120Vac for telecom and computer backup applications.
The BB-SOFC™ 2000 operates directly from 7in to 14in low-pressure natural gas and converts the fuel directly within its array of fuel cell tubes. Because of the technical nature of the SOFC, both the hydrogen and carbon monoxide produced during the conversion or reformation process allow it to boost the fuel/electricity efficiency over other types of fuel cells that just run from hydrogen. It also does not emit any appreciable noise or emissions of NOx or SOx. The fuel cell system can also run on propane or ethanol.
Acumentrics' President and CEO Gary Mook stated, "These shipments represent a new phase in the evolution of our company as we continue to field test our SOFC systems. These units are the building blocks of a family of products that we will be introducing in 2003. We are confident that our SOFC systems will soon bring to the market an economic, clean and simple power solution with wide applicability."
