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Danish fuel cell firm gets funding to develop a 500 W mini-CHP

Thursday, 15 July 2010 17:57

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The Danish fuel cell technology company IRD has gained EU and state funding to develop a 500 W mini-CHP (combined heat and power) plant that runs on methanol rather than hydrogen, reports financial daily newspaper Børsen. The methanol power fuel cell plant, which produces electricity, heat and pure water, can operate in areas where there is no electricity grid. The DKK 8.6 million project is being supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as by the EU research programme Eurostars which is contributing DKK 2.3 million. The Austrian company AVL List GmbH is a collaboration partner. IRD project manager Jacob Linder Binde says that the company knows there is a market for a fuel cell plant of 500 W capacity, but that a substantial amount of development, testing and approval work lies ahead before the plant will be ready to market.

Methanol is attracting interest as an alternative to hydrogen for powering fuel cells for a number of reasons, chief among them being that it is a liquid rather than a gas at ambient temperatures and so does not need pressurising (which uses energy and costs money) for storage and transport. It also has a higher energy density than hydrogen. There are some drawbacks however. Methanol is a carbon-containing compound which unavoidably results in the production of CO2 during the reforming process necessary to use methanol in a fuel cell, so in this respect it is not as 'clean' a fuel as hydrogen. Methanol is also toxic to humans and needs to be handled with care.

Source: Denmark.dk