grid varies widely from region to region,
roughly from 7 to 16 cents per kilowatt.
In general, on-site power generation is
more attractive in regions where there
is a combination of high electricity rates
and low natural gas prices.
In several states, including Connecticut and California, net metering—
a method of crediting customers for
electricity that they generate that is in
excess of what they purchase from the
utility—can make fuel cells attractive
economically.
Joel Rinebold, director of energy
incentives for the Connecticut Center
for Advanced Technology Inc., East
Hartford, Conn., said financial incentives exist at both the state and federal
levels. The organization will run the numbers for Connecticut companies that
are considering installing fuel cells, as
well as offer advice on getting the best
return on investment. Other states that
offer significant financial incentives are
New York, New Jersey, and California.
On the federal level, opportunities for
depreciation and investment tax credits
can offset the cost of the fuel installation by 30 percent.
Running a fuel cell as much as possible makes economic sense to pay off
the investment sooner. For most types
of fuel cells, this practice also reduces
wear and tear. “Fuel cells want to run
flat out all of the time. They don’t want
to cycle up and down like reciprocating
engines,” UTC’s Tierney said.
In Ford Motor Co.’s Fumes-to-Fuel system, the volatile organic compounds from paint fumes
are collected in a filter house that removes large particulates. The fumes are passed
through a fluidized carbon concentrator, where they become chemically attached to carbon
in a highly concentrated form. The concentrated fumes are sent to a re-former, which breaks
the carbon-hydrogen bond. The fumes are reconfigured into synthetic natural gas, which is
sent to the fuel cell to create electricity. Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Co., Detroit.
Whether a facility can make good
use of the electricity and the heat determines whether it is a good candidate
for a fuel cell installation (see Figure
2). The real key in determining whether
a fuel cell makes sense is if the plant
can make use of the heat that drives
the re-forming process to crack the
chemical bonds in the fuel to harvest
the hydrogen for the fuel cell, Tierney
said (see Real-world Installations).
Those requirements can exist on the
process side or to heat the building
itself. “Those are questions we draw
out with our customers. There is a heat
stream, and you can use it for process
water, for space heating, for domestic
hot water, and for dehumidification,”
Tierney said.
A UTC fuel cell is installed at a Whole Foods
Market, Glastonbury, Conn. Photo courtesy
of UTC Power, South Windsor, Conn.
Fuel Cells in the Pipeline
David Dornfeld, a professor of mechani-
cal engineering at the University of
California, Berkeley, and director of the
Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sus-
tainability, finds the idea of using fuel
cells to power manufacturing plants in-
triguing, although he thinks that more
research is needed for that to happen.
“We need to do some studies for heavy
manufacturing, places that do machin-
ing, casting, and things that use a lot
of power, and what kinds of response
times and duty factors you can get from
fuel cells,” he said.
