ARTICLE

October 2003

Fuel Cell Technology Could Solve Service Power Needs

by Geoff S. Fein

Several defense programs currently are funding fuel cell research in an effort to reduce the military services’ reliance on batteries. But in order for fuel cells to become accepted, several obstacles, including the cost to generate power, must be overcome.

To make the 165-year-old technology affordable, experts said, manufacturers will have to standardize their products and commercial demand for fuel cells will have to grow.

Researchers and scientists believe the technology has the capability to power everything from cell phones and laptop computers to the Navy’s future fleet of electric ships. The potential to miniaturize fuel cells could make them ideal power sources for soldiers already burdened with ever-heavier rucksacks. The Coast Guard has looked at fuel cells to power lighthouses and to make the service less dependent on the commercial electrical grid.

“We need to understand fuel cell technology a little bit better in order to make viable recommendations on where and how to apply fuel cells,” said Ken Burt, fuel cell project lead, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, who spoke at the 2003 Tri Service Power Expo.

Fuel cells are chemical engines that produce electricity, as long as there is a steady supply of hydrogen and oxygen. The by-products of fuel cells are water and heat, making them environmentally friendly.

Since 1977, the Department of Energy has invested $1.7 billion in fuel cell programs. The near-term goal is to lower the cost of fuel-cell energy, said Dianne Hooie, of the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

“Costs have to be lower, and [we] have to have higher reliability. The cost of fuel cells is still way too high for wide market acceptance,” she said. “By 2010, we want to be down to $400 per kW.”

The DOE believes it can reach that goal through high-volume and low-cost manufacturing and technology. Marketing studies show that reaching $400 per kW by 2010 is possible, said Hooie at the Tri Service Power Expo.

In fact, it’s possible to achieve $50 per kW by 2015 if there is a wide enough marketing and manufacturing base. That would include the transportation sector, as well as developing fuel cells for a variety of applications, in order to make them cost effective, Hooie added.

The government and industry have teamed up to create the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA), an endeavor to bring fuel cells down to $400 kW.

“Companies believe they can do it, if they can make 10,000 [fuel cells] a year,” said Gary McVay, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s coordinator for the SECA program.

McVay is also the director of fuel cell programs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The DOE has developed several fuel cells for low-power military applications, Hooie said. However, she discounts the notion that fuel cells will replace batteries.

“We began by thinking about the requirements of the system. [We’re] not saying you can replace batteries with fuel cells, because you can’t,” she said. A single battery can’t be replaced yet by a single fuel cell.

“Fuel cells are too big, too heavy, too expensive. But you can take the mission requirement and extend the mission and the requirement of the number of batteries you’ll need over the mission and replace them with fuel cells,” she said. “We envision some hybrid system that may have a fuel cell, a battery recharger, as well as maybe a nano-charger.”

Military science and technology efforts are underway to develop fuel cells that eventually will replace batteries in everything from radios to unmanned aerial vehicles.

Honeywell International Inc. developed a small-portable fuel cell to replace batteries for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), McVay said in an interview.

Fuel cells are being used to recharge batteries, but the idea is to replace batteries, he said.

“Batteries limit the lifetime of a mission,” said McVay.

He cited several examples, including operators having to cut short UAV missions, because they’ve run out of battery power, and tanks unable to operate more than one hour, in stealth mode.

The Navy is studying options for fuel cell power systems for DD-X, the Navy’s future all-electric destroyer. The study is funded through the Office of Naval Research and the Surface Mount Technology program at NSWC Carderock. It is currently in Phase II, which includes testing of a molten carbonate fuel cell and a PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) unit. Tests will take place in fiscal years 2004 and 2005.

At-sea demonstrations were planned for 2006-07, but the Navy is reassessing that need, said Don Hoffman, fuel cell technology manager at the Navy’s Ship Systems Engineering Station in Philadelphia. He said at-sea studies are not likely to be needed.

Burt said there are a number of challenges for the program, including fuel logistics and the impact on the marine environment.

NSWC Crane is establishing a fuel cell lab to test and evaluate small and micro fuel cell technology, Burt said.

Alternative Power Sources for Communications Equipment (APSCE) is a Marine Corps program to examine whether fuel cells can help the service reduce its alliance on batteries.

The goal is to provide war fighters with a “suite of devices” to avoid using batteries, when possible, said Mike Gallagher, program manager for expeditionary power systems at the Marine Corps Systems Command.

“If you are sitting in a warehouse with a radio and you have to check in every hour on the hour, do you really need a battery for that?”

While the service is looking at power converters and adapters, it ultimately will address alternative power such as solar and fuel cells, Gallagher said.

The Marine Corps may start fielding fuel cells in the 2006-07 timeframe, he added. That will depend on whether fuel cells are mature and fully tested, Gallagher said. The Marine Corps will test and evaluate fuel cells before making any acquisition or deployment decisions, he said.

The service is planning to field test two small hydrogen-based fuel cell units in Okinawa, Japan, next year.

The Marine Corps also is cooperating with the Army, the Office of Naval Research and the intelligence community, to address power needs.

“[We are] working closely with the Army’s Objective Warrior to try and define what [are] the needs for weapons systems of the future and what are the power needs associated with [those systems],” Gallagher said.

Projects with ONR include the creation of a power analysis tool at the University of South Carolina. The device will help the service manage power use in the field.

ONR is buying two PPS-50 fuel cell systems (portable power systems that supply 50 watts of power) and testing them to better understand methanol fuel cells.

“One of the things we need to start thinking about is the Marine Corps environment—what are the unique Marine Corps aspects of fuel cells—such as a salt water environment, a sandy environment, an amphibious environment, our concept of operations,” Gallagher said.

Later this year, the Navy and Marine Corps will be launching a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program looking at the unique attributes the two services have for being able to transport fuel, Gallagher said.

“We have more stringent requirements than the other services, and our thought is [to look] at packaging and transportation,” he said.

The Coast Guard also is working with the Navy on its Ship Service Fuel Cell program, and has undertaken its own fuel cell studies.

The Guard’s remote lighthouse application program began a few years ago and went through test and evaluation last fall. It has been in operation for six months at the Cape Henry lighthouse at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

However, the technology was used to power everything but the light, said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Lund of the Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center.

The system didn’t live up to the Coast Guard’s standards. During the six-month trial, the system functioned only 86 percent of the time, Lund said.

“[Fuel cells are] not ready for remote application at this point in time,” he said.

The fuel cell itself operated fine, Lund said. Problems that did occur were mostly in ancillary equipment. For example, the fuel line got bubbles in it. There also were some operator errors and the system overheated. The problems could be solved if service personnel get more experience with the system, Lund added.

Since 1997, the service has been looking at fuel cells to make its air stations more environmentally friendly and to operate independently of the electrical grid, Lund said.

Earlier this year, a 43-ton system was installed at Air Station Cape Cod, Mass. The equipment is just now beginning to produce power, Lund said.

One problem the Coast Guard discovered early on was the high cost of maintaining the system. Lund said the amount was two to three times what the service anticipated in its original economic analysis.

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