MOLTEN-CARBONATE FUEL-CELL POWER-GENERATION SYSTEM

Research and development of molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFC) have be en conducted by Hitachi, Ltd since 1981 under contracts with the Agenc y of New Energy and Industrial Science (NEDO). Hitachi has already com pleted a 100 kW MCFC test plant and in 1994 moved on to construct a 10 00 kW pilot plant. Features of MCFC power generation systems are the h igh plant efficiency and environment friendly characteristics. The eff iciency is expected to be about 55% with LNG and 50% with coal. In ord er to accelerate commercialization of MCFC plants, Hitachi has both st udied systems suitable for distributed and large scale power plants an d also experimented with fuel cell life tests. Stacks with full-size c ells have demonstrated lifetimes above 5000 h at 5 atmospheres and sin gle cells have shown Lifetimes of 30,000 h at atmospheric pressure. Th e 1000 kW pilot plant will be constructed and tested by 1997 and a 10 MW class demonstration plant will be constructed by 2003. (C) 1997 Els evier Science Ltd.