Engineering news
Fuel cell developer Ceres Power is to begin field trials of its home power system before the end of this year.
The wall-mounted system uses a solid oxide fuel cell which is 95% steel, minimising the amount of expensive platinum catalyst and ceramics traditionally used in fuel cells. Ceres Power’s domestic combined heat and power (CHP) system will run off a conventional gas supply during the trial, but can also run off biofuels and hydrogen.
The home CHP system can generate around 80% of a typical home’s power requirement and integrate with the existing heating system to provide all the hot water.
Ceres, which is based in Horsham, Sussex, was originally spun out in 2001 from research conducted at Imperial College. However, the company has faced challenges commercialising the technology and has had to solve several engineering and manufacturing challenges, including improving the robustness and efficiency of its fuel cells. Commercial adoption for residential has also been slow because of high initial costs compared to existing heat and power solutions.
The trials are being conducted with British Gas and will provide data and insight into the product requirements for its further development and commercialisation in the European market, said the company.
Ceres has announced field trials of its domestic fuel cell system with British Gas before, in 2008, as part of plans that included an agreement to supply 37,500 CHP systems to the company. The plans were never implemented
This year’s trial, which is understood to be on a smaller scale of around 10 homes, has €600,000 of European funding, and is part of the ene.field fuel cell residential demonstration programme, which will see 26 companies deploying domestic fuel cell CHP systems in 11 European countries.
Ceres said it is also continuing test and development programmes in Japan with Honda, KD Navien in South Korea and in the US with Cummins.
Phil Caldwell, chief executive of Ceres Power said: "The potential for this technology to have a huge impact on power generation is well understood in other parts of the world, as our growing number of commercial partners demonstrates. I am delighted that we now have the chance to deploy our technology in the UK.
“I am confident we can deliver clean and efficient power generation into UK homes and businesses, meaning lower fuel bills for British consumers and businesses alike."