BP to try out cutting-edge fuel cell at Nikiski plant
PROTOTYPE: Unit the size of a mobile home will power facility, warehouse.
By Jon Little
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: August 17, 2001)
Kenai -- A $6.5 million prototype fuel cell, a natural gas-powered battery of sorts that can generate enough electricity to power 50 homes, will be tested in Nikiski.
The cutting-edge technology developed by Siemens Westinghouse in Pittsburgh is to be installed in 2003 at BP's gas-to-liquids demonstration plant, a testing ground for converting natural gas to synthetic oil being built north of the city of Kenai.
The fuel cell will generate 250 kilowatts of electricity, more than enough to power the GTL plant's offices and warehouse. Commercial models, some powered by diesel, may one day bring quiet, efficient, low-emission power to Alaska villages and other remote places worldwide, according to Siemens and BP officials who announced the fuel cell project Thursday at the Alaska Challenger Learning Center in Kenai.
"We're doing it here in Nikiski, but we do have global aspirations for these technologies," said Shane O'Leary, BP's GTL project manager.
Fuel cells, sometimes jokingly referred to as the Energizer bunnies of power generation, produce electricity through chemical reactions, much like the batteries that power flashlights, said Chris Forbes, Siemens fuel cell sales manager.
But unlike batteries, fuel cells run indefinitely as long as their chemicals are replenished.
The concept has been around since the 1830s, he said, but researchers lacked the technology to build fuel cells until relatively recently. Some cells have provided electricity to NASA spacecraft, such as the space shuttle, and small, light hydrogen-fueled cells may one day propel cars, BP engineers said.
The kind of solid oxide fuel cell going to Nikiski will be too hot -- 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit -- and too heavy to power a vehicle. But BP officials said the natural gas, propane or diesel that can power this sort of large-scale fuel cell holds promise as a stand-alone power source for villages, drilling platforms and other remote sites.
Jeff Rinker, manager of BP's fuel cell research, pointed out that BP's $86 million gas-to-liquids plant will be making sulfur-free synthetic diesel, an ideal fuel for this type of cell.
The Nikiski cell will be a scaled-up version of a 100 kilowatt model tested by Siemens in Germany. It will be the first of three large-scale prototypes to be built, the other two going to Canada and Norway.
"Ours is a very, very simple design," Forbes said.
It will be about the size of a mobile home -- 35 feet long, 8 feet wide, 10 feet tall -- and because it has almost no moving parts, it will be quiet. Passers-by will hear "a bit of a hum from the fans," he said.
Natural gas pumped into the device won't be burned as it would be in a combustion engine but will be completely broken down through oxidation, meaning the process produces very little waste, he said.
Air is blown through a series of 2,500 5-foot-long zirconium-coated tubes while natural gas, stripped of sulfur, is passed along the outside of the tubes. Chemical reaction converts the natural gas to water vapor and carbon dioxide. In the process, electricity is generated, Forbes said.
The chemical process is more efficient than burning fossil fuels, BP officials said. That saves on fuel costs and drastically reduces emissions.
Carbon dioxide emissions are cut by more than a third from an equivalently sized diesel generator, which appeals to BP. The company said it wants to grow while keeping a lid on such greenhouse gases, in keeping with the Kyoto environmental accord.
Other by-products of combustion, such as carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide, which causes acid rain, are reduced to virtually zero using fuel cell technology, Forbes said.
BP will shoulder $4 million of the fuel cell's cost. The U.S. Department of Energy is providing a $2 million grant requested by U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. Chugach Electric Association also secured a $450,000 grant for the project from the Cooperative Research Network of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
The fuel cell will be connected to the Kenai Peninsula's electrical grid, and its characteristics and costs will be studied by Chugach and Homer Electric Association.
Reporter Jon Little can be reached at jlittle@adn.com or at 907-260-5248. |
