FuelCell Energy Inc. (FCE, Danbury, CT), a manufacturer of electric power generation plants, announced that its European partner MTU CFC Solutions, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler AG and RWE Fuel Cells GmbH, has commissioned a power plant incorporating FuelCell Energy’s technology to run a municipal wastewater treatment facility in northeastern Germany. The newly operational wastewater treatment plant replaced a combustion engine-driven cogeneration unit, and it is the first fuel cell in Europe to operate on anaerobic digester gas.
Plans for the 250 kW facility called for installation of MTU’s HotModule power plant, which combines FCE's Direct Fuel Cell stacks with MTU's balance of plant design that it manufactures for the European market. Situated at the Municipal Wastewater Treatment Works in Ahlen, Germany, sewage gas produced by the Ahlen facility is used as fuel and the power plant generates electricity to run the wastewater treatment process; any excess power is fed to the grid. The power plant also generates 180 kW of heat byproduct. Ahlen harnesses the energy to operate its digestion tower (where sewage sludge is turned into the gas fuel source), while any remaining thermal energy is used to heat the office and plant buildings.
