SECA Program Participation

Acumentrics is one of only six companies in the United States to participate the U.S. Department of Energy’s SECA industry program. Acumentrics received a $74,000,000 cost-share grant to pursue cost-reduction of its proprietary anode supported Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (T-SOFC) technology. With regard to sealing and rapid start, T-SOFC technology has demonstrated significant advantages over flat plate and cathode supported solid oxide fuel cells. The SECA program, scheduled for three Phases over nine years, targets 3-10 kilowatt units, and has a manufacturing cost target of <$400 per kilowatt at completion as described in the table below.

During the three years of Phase I, a number of major accomplishments have been made by Acumentrics, with DOE support, in advancing this technology from that of a laboratory experiment to the verge of an entry level commercial product. The following is a list of those accomplishments made in the Phase I program:

• Power Density: Fuel Cell Power under the SECA program has increased over 300% to about 300mW/cm2
• Power per cell: Power per cell has increased over 1000% to >60W/cell
• Degradation: Degradation has decreased from 80%/1000hr to undetectable over the course of the SECA test
• Costs: Factory production costs have been reduced to below $800/kW for large-scale manufacturing
• Inverter: A specialized invertor has been developed to achieve an efficiency of >96%.
• Efficiency: generators have been shown to be able to achieve up to 37% on a COPX gas and 45% on steam reforming
• Fuels: Generators using the latest technology have been operating for over 1000hrs on both natural gas and propane, and continue to operate.

The culmination of Phase I was the testing of a generator incorporating the technology gains made through the SECA program. Acumentrics recently completed final Phase I testing of their generator, performing an over 1600-hr audited test at Acumentrics, followed by 890 hours of verification testing at the NETL facility. All SECA goals were met or exceeded during that test. Results of that testing are listed in the table below:

Other SECA Unit Achievements:

• 2500 hrs total operation with 2142 hrs producing >1500W net DC
• >5600kW-hr net DC produced
• 8 Thermal cycles to <200oC
• 19 power cycles (cycling between 1500Wnet DC and ~2900Wnet DC)- This load following capability was demonstrated with 10 cycles being performed within <70 minutes.

The generator has been returned to Acumentrics for further testing and operation, and Acumentrics has begun work on Phase II of the program. In Phase II, Acumentrics with the help and support of the DOE, has the goal of continuing to increase power density per through the use of technical advancing in materials and processing. Generators will also be operated on reformed natural gas or gasified coal compositions, rather than a COPX system, allowing efficiencies above 40% throughout operation. These two advances, when combined with the high-efficiency inverter design, will provide a low-cost high-efficiency alternative to present electrical production methods.

A number of key partners have worked with Acumentrics to define market segments and requirements. They include:

• General Dynamics for liquid fuels as well as military operations.
• Sumitomo Corporation of Japan for introduction and product definition into the Japanese market.
• MTS Corporation for introduction into the Combined Heat and Power market of Europe.

Commercial units will be capable of entering the telecommunication, remote residential, and military markets. Direct operation on natural gas and propane is already a reality. Operation on liquid fuels, including diesel and JP-8, will be developed for the military markets. Further work beyond diesel and JP-8 will pursue operation on liquefied coal compositions. Longer term development on alternative fuels such as coal gas will subsequently give these units the ability to operate at much higher power capacities while using a very abundant national resource, supporting the DOE’s FutureGen vision.

Acumentrics would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to the U.S. DOE-NETL, Mr. Wayne Surdoval, Technology Manager for Fuel Cells, Mr. Don Collins, Program Manager, and Ms. Heather Quedenfeld, Project Manager, for their support and guidance during the execution of this program.

Department of Energy Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance Program