The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $1 million to FuelCell Energy Inc. to further develop and demonstrate an efficient method for simultaneously separating and compressing hydrogen for multiple applications utilizing its solid-state electrochemical hydrogen separation and compression (EHSC) technology.
The company says EHSC expands the production capability of its Direct FuelCell power plants, making them suitable for applications such as vehicle fueling. The award funds a two-year project to develop EHSC capability that can operate on a variety of fuel inputs, such as natural gas or renewable biogas.
The compression target for this program is 300 psig (pounds-force per square inch gauge). Integrating the EHSC technology with FuelCell Energy's existing fuel cell technology targets the production and compression of hydrogen at pressures of 3,000 to 12,000 psig.
