Acumentrics Corp. (Westwood, MA), a developer of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), has shipped a 5 kW SOFC system to Sumitomo Corp. (Japan). The unit will be located and tested at the Yawata Laboratories of Nippon Steel Corp. and is the second Acumentrics demonstration unit to be shipped to Japan. The unit is the 18th SOFC system to be shipped as part of the Acumentrics field-testing program for its technology.
Acumentrics, Sumitomo and Nippon Steel will initially concentrate on modifying Acumentrics' prototype natural-gas-powered, rapid-start, tubular SOFC (T-SOFCs) for the Japanese market, initially targeting 2 kW to 10 kW small commercial applications and later expanding to the 20 kW, 50 kW and 100 kW sizes. Acumentrics will be solely responsible for SOFC technology while Sumitomo will be responsible for market requirements and actual marketing of the fuel cell products.
