Siemens celebrates one-year anniversary of SOFC generator in Italy


The Siemens Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) combined heat & power 100 (SFC-100) system, which started operating at the Gas Turbine Technologies S.p.A. (GTT) Torino, Italy, facility in June 2005, has now operated for over 9,000 hours and has produced approximately 1,105 megawatt hours of electricity exported to the grid.
Thanks to system availability of 99.5 percent, the overall electricity produced was more than 1100 megawatts/hours (MWh), with an efficiency of up to 46 percent, and the overall system efficiency, including cogeneration, is between 70 percent and 80 percent. The system has been demonstrated to potentially be superior in efficiency to a gas turbine or to an internal combustion engine. During this one year of operation, the GTT team confirmed that the operation is stable and reliable, including with variations in pipeline natural gas composition.
"GTT has established an outstanding industrial test facility that provides real life experience in operating Siemens Solid Oxide Fuel Cells in a trigen (power, heat, cooling) application," said Dr. Thomas Flower, president, Siemens Stationary Fuel Cells Division.
This SOFC CHP system was previously operated both in The Netherlands, by Nuon, and the Dutch / Danish Utility Consortium from 1996 to 2000, and in Germany from 2001 to 2002 at RWE. The combined system operating hours, combining all locations, now exceeds 29,000 hours. This is the longest operating period for a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell system that is grid-connected and operating in a CHP mode. The generator produces both heat and electricity, with a nominal power of 110 kW of electrical power and 60 kW of thermal power, and is fueled with natural gas. Participants in this project are Regione Government Piemonte, which provided partial funding for the system; Politecnico di Torino; and the Environment Park of Torino. Siemens, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, developed the SOFC technology.
"Strong characteristics of this technology are high efficiency, extremely low polluting emissions; zero CO and SOx; and NOx emissions of one hundred times less than that of the best in class gas turbines. Over the past year of operation, the SFC-100 generator has avoided production of 272 tons of CO2-reduced environmental pollution of over 1,000 kg of NOx and would eliminate the equivalent of 121 tons of imported oil," said Luigi Tarricone, president of GTT. "This is a tremendous environmental breakthrough in small scale power generation," Tarricone said.
During the latest operating period, there was no measurable voltage or power degradation, and there were no thermal cycles taken by the generator module. The system operation is automatic and very dependable, with no operations required in the control room. Maintenance to the system is completed on-line and is relatively simple, with only replacement of air filters and desulphurization reactant generally required.
The CHP100 generator supplies part of the electricity demand of GTT’s manufacturing facility (20 percent of the electricity requirement), and part of the thermal energy required for heating and air conditioning of GTT offices. During nights and weekends the unit exports power to the municipal grid. This kind of cogeneration plant has its optimal use in distributed generation for industrial plants, malls, hospitals, universities and mini-grid applications.
It is anticipated that in early 2008, a second Siemens industrial SOFC generator, the SFC-200A, will be installed at the GTT facility. This unit, presently under design by Siemens Power Generation, is expected to bring the power produced by SOFC generators at GTT’s facility to about 50 percent of its electricity requirements at very high efficiency, thanks to new tubular cell materials and a new generator module design.
GTT’s aim with this project is to maintain service leadership in power station service, from gas turbines to stationary fuel cell generators. The results of this research should allow GTT to install, maintain and repair SOFC generators, developing its personnel skills in fuel cell service tasks – i.e. assembly, disassembly, repairing and refurbishment – in order to provide a strong service platform in Europe for Siemens SOFC systems.
The Power Generation Group (PG) of Siemens AG is one of the premier companies in the international power generation sector. In fiscal 2005 (which ended September 30), Siemens PG posted sales amounting to approximately EUR8.1 billion and received new orders totaling EUR10.9 billion. Group profit amounted to EUR951 million. On September 30, 2005, PG had a work force of approximately 33,500 worldwide.
Gas Turbine Technologies S.p.A.: GTT’s history dates from 1952, when Fiat Termomeccanica Turbogas (TTG) was founded. Later in 1987, it became part of Fiat Aviazione (Fiat Avio), and was established in 2003 to provide comprehensive, high quality services to the power generation industry as a Siemens company. It is headquartered in Torino, Italy - Corso Romania, 661. The Company has 223 employees and revenues of EUR63.6 million (fiscal year 2004-2005).