[LINK] Ceramic Fuel Cells

Paul Brooks pbrooks-link at layer10.com.au
Mon Jun 6 09:18:32 AEST 2011


On 5/06/2011 12:49 PM, David Lochrin wrote:
>
> A total output of 9,283 KwH between 1st August 2010 and 31st May 2011 is equivalent to 10,071 megaJoules per quarter if I'm not mistaken.  And I believe that is very close to the average quarterly consumption of natural gas of connected households.
>
> The press release gave me the impression that electricity generation was just a byproduct of water heating.  Or is the idea that households would generate their own electricity when needed by firing up the fuel cell, a bit like automatically firing up the shower when the hot water tap is turned on?
>
> It's all starting to sound to me like a technology in search of a market.  It's a nice idea, but gas is still greenhouse intensive and it would be a shame to embark on some major gas infrastructure development which would whiteant sustainable energy projects.

As I understand it, the unit runs pretty much constantly converting gas to
electricity. Excess power over the instantaneous demand of the household can be
exported to the grid, or wasted - presumably the rate of gas input to the fuel-cell
can be dialled back to reduce gas usage if there isn't any benefit from the excess
power generated.

The water heating is a byproduct of the electricity generation - might as well use the
rise in temperature of the fuel cell to heat the water directly, than waste the heat
and then use electricity to drive an element to heat the water.

P.





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