The purpose of this study is to further the efforts of low-cost co-production of hydrogen and electricity. Hydrogen price parity with gasoline is an imperative if hydrogen is to be used for transportation fuel. A distributed, rather than centralized, generation approach to hydrogen production avoids infrastructure costs and allows for safer and more convenient distribution to customers. Bloom Energy?s (BE?s) systems, when manufactured in high volume, can produce low cost hydrogen by co-producing hydrogen and electricity simultaneously with one common set of lowcost equipment. The main objectives of this project have been to 1) deliver and field test a pilot plant producing high purity hydrogen and electricity in Alaska
2) show the feasibility of a delivered cost of hydrogen below $2.50 per gge
3) demonstrate that our systems can run on liquid fuels
and 4) create learning opportunities regarding commercial customer needs so that the DOE and BE can use this demonstration project to gain critical insights necessary to build, deliver and install a commercially viable stationary fuel cell-based hydrogen/electricity coproduction system. Over the course of this project, BE has successfully demonstrated the ability to build and operate a PSOFC for 12 months, with a peak efficiency over 50%, while improving the understanding of operating requirements in cold weather. BE also demonstrated the capability to co-produce electricity and hydrogen, and to generate pure hydrogen in volumes of 19.3 kg/day
and additionally demonstrated the feasibility of a delivered cost of hydrogen below $2.50 per gge.