South 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 Korea’s energy demand.

In 2013, the country was the world’s 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 frm’s South Korean partner,

independent power producer Posco Energy,

completed the world’s largest fuel cell

power plant, the 59 MW Gyeonggi Green

Energy park in South Korea’s Hwasung City,

which uses FuelCell Energy’s technology.

PEi spoke with Tony Leo, FuelCell Energy’s 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

frm’s 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 Energy’s 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 world’s 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 world’s 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 world’s 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

City’s 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 Energy’s 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 there’s 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: “It’s specifc to this

technology,” he said, “and it’s 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 we’re constructing 21 of

the same unit, it’s 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 didn’t 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 we’ve done

before, but hopefully will become typical,” he

said. “In the grand scheme of power plants,

it’s not that big.”

Use of heat

The effciency of a fuel cell power plant – in

Gyeonggi’s 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

couldn’t 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 20–30 MW of

heat energy. “We recover heat from all

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25www.PowerEngineeringInt.com

Fuel Cell energy

Power Engineering International July-August 2014

21 units’ exhausts,” said Goddard, explaining

that atop each fuel cell power plant’s 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 nation’s growth over the next 10 years.

While FuelCell Energy’s components are

currently manufactured in Connecticut,

Posco Energy, which is a subsidiary of

the world’s fourth-largest steel company,

is now building a fuel cell component

manufacturing facility in Pohang which is

expected to begin operation in 2015.

“They’re doing it under license to us,”

Goddard explained, “but it’s 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. They’re 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 there’s 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. “We’re developing

improvements to the cell technology to

increase output to 3 MW and increase the

stack life from fve to seven years.

“We’ve 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. It’s been a general evolution

and refnement of the carbonate technology.

“We’re also looking at ways to develop

new products from carbonate – for example,

we’re 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 CO2 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 it’s diffcult to make the cells very

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26 www.PowerEngineeringInt.comPower Engineering International July-August 2014

Fuel cell energy

large. A single cell in a carbonate power

plant is 9000 cm2 in area – but no one knows

how to make solid oxide cells that big; the

ones we make now are 600 cm2.

“We’ve 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, it’s good for power plants running on

coal gas, and we agree.”

The competition

Several other fuel cell companies are active

in FuelCell Energy’s 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 Japan’s 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

Power’s $124 million and Intelligent Energy’s

$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

Energy’s continuing success. “Ours is the

lowest-cost system out there and very high

effciency,” he said. “We’re 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 aren’t bothered

by CO2 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 CO2 and sell it into

the natural gas grid – some people do,” he

continues. “This is very expensive though,

especially the CO2 scrubbing part. We can

put a unit right at the customer’s plant so

they don’t have to scrub out all the CO2 and

it’s less expensive to process the gas.”

A 2.8 MW unit in California is the world’s

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 frm’s future market development is

“a wide-open question,” Leo says. “We’re very

successful in South Korea, and successful in

some North American markets, California in

particular. And we’ve opened up, a couple of

years ago, a subsidiary in Germany, so we’re

starting to address the European market

[which] has a lot of potential and hadn’t

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 Gore’s 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.

“We’re 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.”

Visit www.PowerEngineeringInt.com for more information i

How a Fuel Cell Works

=CO3

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H

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The fuel is reformed within the anode side of the fuel cell to extract the hydrogen.

1

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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