S

outh Korea is an energy-

intensive country with a
growing population, high urban
population density and little
available land. In the wake of
a scandal involving falsifed
nuclear plant safety certifcates, the nation
aims to reduce its reliance on nuclear power
to 29 per cent of its energy mix by 2035.
Due to a lack of domestic resources,
imported fuels currently meet around
97 per cent of South Koreas energy demand.
In 2013, the country was the worlds second-
largest importer of liquefed natural gas
(LNG), the fourth-largest coal importer, and
the ffth-largest oil importer.
In a move to clean up its energy mix,
South Korea has had a green growth
policy in place since 2008, with the goal
of increasing its use of renewables to
20 per cent of the generation mix by 2027.
Among its renewables-friendly policies, the
nation has feed-in tariffs (FiTs), a renewable
heat obligation and a renewable portfolio
standard.
However, its terrain is hilly and thus not
particularly well-suited for large solar or wind
farms. In the past few years South Korea has
shown a growing interest in fuel cell power,
with a number of projects in the works.
Enter US-based FuelCell Energy. In
February the frms South Korean partner,
independent power producer Posco Energy,
completed the worlds largest fuel cell
power plant, the 59 MW Gyeonggi Green
Energy park in South Koreas Hwasung City,
which uses FuelCell Energys technology.
PEi spoke with Tony Leo, FuelCell Energys vice
president for applications and advanced
technology development, and Kurt Goddard,
vice president for investor relations, about
Gyeonggi, stationary fuel cell power, research
and development, market prospects and the
frms plans for the future.
How a fuel cell power plant works
Fuel cells convert chemical energy from
hydrogen-rich fuels into electrical power
and heat in a low-emission electrochemical
process.
Similar to a battery, a fuel cell is comprised
of many individual cells grouped together
to form a so-called fuel cell stack. Each cell
contains an anode, a cathode and an
electrolyte later. When a hydrogen-rich fuel
such as natural gas or biogas enters the fuel
cell stack, it reacts electrochemically with
the ambient air (oxygen), producing electric
current, heat and water. But differently from a
battery, which has a fxed supply of energy
and can be depleted, fuel cells can generate
electricity as long as fuel is supplied.
FuelCell Energys Direct Fuel Cell power
plants are based on carbonate fuel cell
technology, in which the electrolyte is made
up of potassium and lithium carbonates.
Carbonate fuel cells can generate hydrogen
from multiple fuel sources in a process called
internal reforming, which has been patented
by FuelCell Energy. The company says this
process offers a competitive edge because
it allows readily available fuels to be used.
Fuel cell energy
Interest in fuel cell power
is growing in markets
where large-scale clean
energy development
is desired but space
is limited for solar or
wind parks. The newest
development is the
worlds largest fuel cell
power park in Hwasung
City, South Korea.
Tildy Bayar spoke with
FuelCell Energy, the
company behind it
The 59 MW Gyeonggi Green Energy Park in Hwasung City, South Korea is the worlds largest
Credit: FuelCell Energy
22 Power Engineering International July-August 2014 www.PowerEngineeringInt.com
Fuel cell
power scales up
Fuel cell
power scales up
1408pei_22 22 8/11/14 1:58 PM
Fuel cell energy
And because there is no fuel combustion,
power production emits almost no NOx, SOx
or particulate matter, the frm says.
Inside the power plant is the fuel cell
stack or, for multi-megawatt power plants,
a module that contains multiple stacks. The
incoming fuel is processed by the mechanical
balance of plant, while the electrical output is
processed by the electrical balance of plant.
Building Gyeonggi
At 59 MW, Gyeonggi is quite a bit bigger than
the worlds second-largest fuel cell park, a
14.9 MW system in Bridgeport, Connecticut,
US, also developed by FuelCell Energy. Posco
Energy is also building a third, 19.6 MW fuel
cell park in Seoul.
The LNG-fuelled Gyeonggi plant provides
continuous baseload power to Hwasung
Citys grid. Its 21 Direct Fuel Cell (DFC3000)
base units, rated at 2.8 MW each, sit on
2 ha of land. Because of their small footprint,
FuelCell Energys power plants are easy to
site, Goddard said.
An intermittent solar plant would need
about 10 times the land we do, Leo added.
In South Korea, where theres high urban
population density, we take only fve acres
in an industrial area for almost 60 MW of
continuous baseload power.
Posco Energy completed the plant in
14 months. For a project of this size, such a
short construction time is a testament to how
smoothly it was done, Leo said, compared
to conventional power plants where it takes
that long just to get the permit.
Permitting for the park was very fast,
and Leo explained why: Its specifc to this
technology, he said, and its the same in
California and many other US states. Because
fuel cell technology is recognized as emitting
virtually no harmful pollutants, we can bypass
the air and pollution permitting which is
required for a power plant of that size.
Construction was unproblematic too,
Leo said. Because were constructing 21 of
the same unit, its a relatively straightforward
construction process. Instead of 21 separate
mobilizations, there are fewer in terms of
cranes and such. Interconnection of the 21
units was a little more tricky than a single
unit, he said, but didnt present problems
and was just something we needed to work
through in engineering terms.
The units scalability was an advantage,
making the project very different from trying
to install one big 59 MW system, Leo added.
Gyeonggi is bigger than what weve done
before, but hopefully will become typical, he
said. In the grand scheme of power plants,
its not that big.
Use of heat
The effciency of a fuel cell power plant in
Gyeonggis case, around 47 per cent electrical
can be enhanced by using the waste heat
from the fuel cells in other applications such
as industrial processes or facility heating and
cooling, although this is not always possible
in systems of this size, explained Goddard.
In our 14.9 MW project in Connecticut we
couldnt fnd a user for the excess heat, so
we take the waste heat from the fuel cell and
make more electricity in a bottoming cycle.
However, Hwasung City has a district
heating system, to which the Gyeonggi
plant now contributes 2030 MW of
heat energy. We recover heat from all
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Fuel Cell energy
Power Engineering International July-August 2014
21 units exhausts, said Goddard, explaining
that atop each fuel cell power plants main
equipment section is a waste heat recovery
system which transfers heat to a hot water
loop and onward to the district heating
network. While district heating systems are
not common in the US, explained Goddard,
Once you get outside the US and into areas
with district heating and cooling, there are
interesting options for excess heat use.
Local manufacturing
South Korea aims to expand its local
manufacturing base, and clean energy
manufacturing is predicted to be a driver for
the nations growth over the next 10 years.
While FuelCell Energys components are
currently manufactured in Connecticut,
Posco Energy, which is a subsidiary of
the worlds fourth-largest steel company,
is now building a fuel cell component
manufacturing facility in Pohang which is
expected to begin operation in 2015.
Theyre doing it under license to us,
Goddard explained, but its for them and
their marketplace, although we can source
components out of that. We initially licensed
the balance of plant technology, and a few
years ago they started manufacturing heat
exchangers and so forth everything but
the fuel cell stack modules. Theyre already
doing fnal assembly of fuel cell stacks, and
in a couple of years they will be able to
manufacture the cells themselves.
For us this is a royalty stream, but also a
second source of supply, Leo said. And for
some of our customers, the fact that theres a
second source for key fuel cell components
is comforting.
R&D
The company is working on improving its
technology. One of those 21 DFC3000 power
plants in South Korea generates 2.8 MW, and
you have to change the fuel cell stacks every
fve years, Goddard said. Were developing
improvements to the cell technology to
increase output to 3 MW and increase the
stack life from fve to seven years.
Weve done this before, he added. When
we frst started selling cells commercially, a
DFC3000 would produce 2 MW, then 2.4 MW,
then 2.8 MW. Its been a general evolution
and refnement of the carbonate technology.
Were also looking at ways to develop
new products from carbonate for example,
were developing a product that also
produces hydrogen in addition to electricity
and heat, commented Leo. The product
converts natural gas to hydrogen inside the
fuel cell stack, yielding pure hydrogen for use
in industrial processes or hydrogen vehicle
stations. The company has a demonstration
project in California and others in process in
Connecticut and Canada.
Another project, supported by the US
Department of Energy, involves using fuel
cells to capture carbon dioxide. Leo explains:
Carbonate fuel cells have a carbon cycle
inside them. If you send CO
2
into the air
intake, it gets transferred to fuel gas and you
can easily separate it out.
FuelCell Energy is also working on a next
generation of fuel cells based on solid oxide
technology, an interesting option for smaller-
sized power plants, Leo says. Solid oxide is
more effcient because of the way electrodes
work but its diffcult to make the cells very
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26 www.PowerEngineeringInt.com Power Engineering International July-August 2014
Fuel cell energy
large. A single cell in a carbonate power
plant is 9000 cm
2
in area but no one knows
how to make solid oxide cells that big; the
ones we make now are 600 cm
2
.
Weve scaled up more than anyone,
he said. We hope to enter the market in a
couple of years with sub-megawatt products.
And the US government is funding us for solid
oxide because they think that, in the long
term, its good for power plants running on
coal gas, and we agree.
The competition
Several other fuel cell companies are active
in FuelCell Energys target markets. California-
based Bloom Energy, which uses solid oxide
fuel cells in its 200 kW EnergyServer power
plants, has installed systems in Tokyo as well
as California and Connecticut. The frm has
formed a joint venture with Japans Softbank
Group to deploy its technology in Japan.
Another US-based competitor, ClearEdge
Power, fled for bankruptcy in May. Financial
analysts say fuel cell developers face a diffcult
time in the mid-term, with more bankruptcies
and consolidations expected. While investors
enthusiasm seems undimmed as recent
fundraising such as fuel cell maker Plug
Powers $124 million and Intelligent Energys
$63 million show analysts caution against
making bets disproportionate to the long-
term revenue opportunities, as Cosmin
Laslau, an analyst with Lux Research, put it.
But Leo is confdent about FuelCell
Energys continuing success. Ours is the
lowest-cost system out there and very high
effciency, he said. Were the most successful
fuel cell developer out there.
Future markets
Carbonate fuel cell power plants can be
used in a variety of scenarios given their fuel
fexibility, Leo says. Quite a few of our units
in North America California in particular
are running on renewable biogas, he offers,
because carbonate fuel cells arent bothered
by CO
2
dilution of digester gas, for example.
There is the possibility to take digester gas
from a wastewater treatment plant, clean out
the sulphur and all of the CO
2
and sell it into
the natural gas grid some people do, he
continues. This is very expensive though,
especially the CO
2
scrubbing part. We can
put a unit right at the customers plant so
they dont have to scrub out all the CO
2
and
its less expensive to process the gas.
A 2.8 MW unit in California is the worlds
largest fuel cell power plant operating
on renewable biogas, Goddard says. The
technology can be useful for food processing
companies and breweries as well, he adds,
converting a waste disposal problem into a
revenue stream.
The frms future market development is
a wide-open question, Leo says. Were very
successful in South Korea, and successful in
some North American markets, California in
particular. And weve opened up, a couple of
years ago, a subsidiary in Germany, so were
starting to address the European market
[which] has a lot of potential and hadnt
really been adequately served in the past.
FuelCell Energy Solutions GmbH is a
joint venture between FuelCell Energy and
Fraunhofer IKTS. The company operates a
facility in Ottobrun which assembles sub-
megawatt Direct Fuel Cell power plants.
In the UK, the frm has installed two sub-
megawatt systems in central London
including one powering the headquarters of
Al Gores sustainable investment company
and is working with The Crown Estate on
its Regent Street redevelopment project.
Leo said the company is pursuing a variety
of megawatt-scale applications all over
Europe and hopes to announce specifcs
soon. Demonstration installations for a
federal ministry building in Berlin and a utility
customer in Switzerland are showcasing
what the technology can do, he said.
Were now working to scale up into
bigger applications megawatt-class on-site
power and over time we look, hope, expect
to have European fuel cell parks like those in
South Korea.
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i
How a Fuel Cell Works
=
CO3
CO2
O
2 O2
H+
H+
H+
e-
CH4
e-
e-
e-
Heat
Electric Current
O
2
The fuel is reformed
within the anode side of
the fuel cell to extract
the hydrogen.
1
Negative ions
travel through
the electrolyte
to the anode
where they
combine with
hydrogen to
generate water,
heat and
electrons
3
Electrons from the
anode cannot pass
through the
electrolyte to the
positively charged
cathode; they must
travel around it via
an electrical circuit,
creating the electrical
current
CO2
Flows to
Cathode
=
CO3
Water Vapor
Electrolyte Matrix
Cathode
Anode
Bipolar Plate
Anode Flow Field
Cathode Flow Field
Bipolar Plate
H O 2
=
CO3
H O 2
Air
O from ambient 2
air and CO and 2
H O from anode 2
Natural gas
Renewable biogas
Other (Propane)
Fuel
e-
e-
e-
and
H O 2
2
Fuel cells convert chemical energy from hydrogen-rich fuels into electrical power
and heat in a low-emission electrochemical process.
Credit: FuelCell Energy
1408pei_26 26 8/11/14 1:58 PM