Acumentrics Fuel Cells Surpass Expectations in DOE Test

Westwood, Massachusetts [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Acumentrics Corporation has completed Phase I of its U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solid-State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) cooperative agreement. The goal of the SECA study is to advance fuel cell performance, efficiency and reliability while reducing cost.

Fuels cells from Acumentrics, a developer of solid-oxide fuel cells and uninterruptible power supplies for the distributed generation market, performed better than expected, with zero degradation and power output 20% higher than anticipated. “We’ve made remarkable progress in the last three years especially as a small business, which we could not have done without the support of the DOE SECA program,” said Gary Simon, CEO of Acumentrics. The SECA tests ran for more than 2400 hours. Peak power reached over 6.2 kilowatts, 20% above the 5-kilowatt (kW) design capacity of the unit. Efficiency reached 36%, availability clocked 97%, and the degradation rate was zero. In addition, the capital cost was below the $800/kW target for SECA Phase I. Tests and results were audited by DOE and independent auditors. “We are very encouraged by the performance of the Acumentrics unit,” said Wayne Surdoval, Technology Manager for Fuel Cells at DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. “They have surpassed the first-tier DOE SECA performance targets and we look forward to Acumentrics continued success.” Phase I success allows Acumentrics to continue to Phase II of the SECA program, in which the company can focus on advancing the tubular technology to increase power density and handle coal syngas compositions.