Monday, November 12, 2012

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

A new area of research for the blog.

Delphi's SOFC cost between 8 to 9 thousand dollars for a 5 kw system.

Delphi said it would compete against "midrange" APUs—i.e., in the $8000-$9000 installed price range (some diesel APUs are as much as 50% higher).

That means 4 of these would go for 36 grand.  Much cheaper than platinum fuel cells.  What's the weight on this thing?

A clue here, but the write up is 4 years old
A specific effort was dedicated to system design and component integration. The result was a highly integrated system weighing in at 85 kg (39 kg/kW)

For a 5 kw system, that's 39kg*5= approx 200 kg.  Too heavy for a trailer.  On a car?

It takes 2 hours to warm up!  Too long.

Alternatives?

There may be something else going on at Howard University--- link  here.  I don't know if they've got anything yet.



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