Fuel Cell Technologies Corp. (FCT, Kingston, ON) and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (Fairbanks, AK) announced that the 5 kW solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) installed in Fairbanks has successfully passed the one-year field operational mark. The university has been testing fuel cell systems, which convert natural gas to grid-compatible ac electricity, for more than six years.
The unit has operated for 8,700 hours and provided 24,000 kWh of electricity to the Fairbanks Natural Gas facility. That, together with an average of 2 kWh of generated heat, brings the total system efficiency to 70%, a significant efficiency gain when compared to current systems of similar size, such as small diesel generators, which operate at about 25% electrical efficiency.
The fuel cell functioned 91.5% of the time over the past year. During the past year there was only one unplanned interruption of service, which occurred when a minor software error resulted in a system shutdown that caused some changes to the fuel cell system. Since then, the unit has continued to run reliably at a slightly reduced power. FCT engineers say the new system design precludes the problem from recurring in second-generation units.
