Acumentrics Corp. (Westwood, MA), a developer of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and uninterruptible power supplies for distributed generation, announced the shipment of a 5 kW tubular SOFC system to the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL, Morgantown, WV). The unit is the seventh in Acumentrics’ current beta field test program.
Acumentrics is a part of the US Department of Energy’s Solid-State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) industry program in which participants will be required to supply NETL with a working SOFC system sometime in 2006. NETL is developing a facility to perform the testing. The Acumentrics unit, though not the same as the unit that will be shipped in 2006, will be used to help NETL start up its test facility, and will be the first unit supplied to NETL by a SECA team member. Over the next 6 to 12 months, the Acumentrics SOFC system will be tested at NETL to evaluate the facility and testing procedures.
"This shipment further illustrates the progress of the Acumentrics team in developing actual systems based on SOFC technology," said Acumentrics CEO Gary Simon. "Our systems will be compatible with this country's existing fuel infrastructure as well as the potential hydrogen infrastructure of the future."
