News

Marubeni Announces Asian DFC Wastewater Plant

June 02, 2002 by Jeff Shepard

FuelCell Energy Inc. (Danbury, CT) and Marubeni Corp. (Japan) announced the first siting of a Direct FuelCell® (DFC®) power plant for a municipal wastewater treatment facility in Fukuoka, Japan. The 250kW DFC unit is to be operated in cogeneration mode, using the methane-like digester gas produced from the processing of municipal effluent. The thermal output of the fuel cell will be used by the anaerobic digester, which treats the incoming wastewater.

Marubeni will install a 250kW DFC power plant at Fukuoka's wastewater treatment facility in the first quarter of 2003. Installation of the DFC cogeneration unit is part of a two-year program to evaluate the fuel cell technology. The Fukuoka wastewater treatment facility will consume the electricity and steam generated by the unit at their plant site.

"Marubeni is pleased to be working with the City of Fukuoka to gain valuable experience using clean, efficient DFC technology, while providing a reliable source of power from their wastewater digester plant," said Marc Aube, vice president of Marubeni Power International. "The wastewater treatment market represents one of the largest opportunities for fuel cells in Japan, with the potential for over 2,000MW of power production."