Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Aerospace Division. Science and Technology.
Abstract
Westinghouse has deployed fully integrated, automatically controlled, packaged solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) power generation systems in order to obtain useful customer feedback. Recently, Westinghouse has deployed 20 kW class natural gas fueled SOFC generator modules integrated into two 25 kW SOFC systems, the first with The UTILITIES, a Japanese consortium. The UTILITIES 25 kW SOFC system is the focus of this paper. The unit was shipped to the Rokko Island Test Center for Advanced Energy Systems (near Kobe, Japan) operated by Kansai Electric Power Co.; testing was initiated February 1992. Module A operated for 2601 hours at an ave output 16.6 kW dc; final shutdown was induced by current stability problems with dissipator (restart not possible because of damaged cells). Module B operated for 1579 hours at ave output 17.8 kWdc. The unit was damaged by operation at excessively high fuel utilization > 91%. It was rebuilt and returned to Rokko Island. This module B2 operated for 1843 hours on PNG; shutdown was cuased by air supply failure. After a new blower and motor were installed July 1993, the system was restarted August 5, 1993 and operated continuously until November 10, 1993, when an automatic shutdown was induced as part of a MITI licensing inspection. After restart, the unit passed 6000 hours of operation on desulfurized PNG on January 25, 1994. Westinghouse`s future plans are outlined
