Activities in Japan to develop the on-site fuel cell and to bring it into the market have been actively carried forward with the phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). To achieve this, potential users, such as gas companies, have been supporting and cooperating with American and Japanese manufacturers of fuel cells.
The PAFC project, aiming for the commercialization of the 50 kW to 200 kW-class on-site units, is currently being carried out. For SOFC, an experimental unit with a capacity of 25 kW will soon be tested.
The development and commercialization of the fuel cell for on-site cogeneration systems can be said to be a pressing and important subject because of its expected contribution to energy conservation and to reducing environmental pollution (Table 1).
On-site phosphoric acid fuel cell
Systems manufactured by the American company, International Fuel Cells Corp. (IFC), have been given field tests involving four PC18 (40 kW) units at Japanese gas companies. Testing of the PC25 (200 kW) preprototype model units has also started in Japan.
In joint development with Japanese manufacturers, about 20 units of 50, 100 and 200 kW trial units are now being fabricated by Mitsubishi Electric, Fuji Electric, and others. These will be field-tested by gas, electric power and petroleum companies.