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Another Step Forward In Small Scale Electrical Generators
NicknamesAreStupid writes "Product Design & Development reports another breakthrough in small scale solid oxide fuel cells. This methane-fueled cell achieves about 50% efficiency at around 2kW, enough to power an average home. It does so by efficiently recycling its heat to perpetuate the process. Of course, this is not practical for most homes, which only have natural gas that contains nearly one fifth impurities. However, that could change if gas suppliers refined their product."
Could it be used on board an electric vehicle to provide power in lieu of a battery?
No. Even though solid oxide fuel cells work and are commercially available (in larger sizes), they have problems for automobile applications - to run efficiently, they operate close to 1000 degrees C, and they don't like being bounced around. Dealing with that kind of temperature in a car is a problem.
For mobile applications, PEM fuel cells are far more likely to be practical.
A classic problem with fuel cells is extreme intolerance to contaminants. Even trace amounts of contaminants tend to damage fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells need cleaner hydrogen than is normally available commercially. Research continues on making fuel cells more tolerant of contaminants, but it's hard. Fuel cells are surface chemistry systems. 40 years of research hasn't solved this problem.
Reverse osmosis water purification systems once had the same problem. Today they routinely take in raw seawater and pump out clear water. They just need a backflush cycle once in a while to flush the crud off the membranes. Fuel cells aren't there yet.
The standard numbers that are tossed around for the average US suburban home (where a bit over 50% of the population lives these days), is 30 kWh per day, with a peak hour usage as high as 6 kWh, depending on location. IIRC, the peak hour tends to occur in the late afternoon and early evening, and varies somewhat between households: people coming home from school/work and turning on lights and A/C, parents firing up the washer/dryer, electric cooking, etc. We looked at converting to NG for cooking at one point; current code requires venting to the outside, which would in turn require some structural work. A contemporary single-family house in the US suburbs will be equipped with at least the equivalent of 125-amp 120-volt service (supports 15 kWh per hour max); the equivalent of 200-amp 120-volt service (24 kWh per hour) is not unusual.
Obligatory "Get off my lawn you damned kids!" anecdote. When my kids were in their early teens, I swear they could come through the front door and within 60 seconds, turn on 500 watts worth of assorted load each. Ever since, and after comparing notes with colleagues, I've claimed that one of the defining characteristic of dads who've had teenagers is a compulsive urge to turn things off and sit quietly in the dark.