Lr-Fuel Cell Technology

Lr- fuel cells provide cost effective and environmentally friendly solutions to improving our energy needs and use the chemical energy of hydrogen or other fuels to cleanly and efficiently produce electricity. If hydrogen is the fuel, the only products are electricity, water, and heat. Fuel cells are unique in terms of the variety of their potential applications; they can use a wide range of fuels and feed stocks and can provide power for systems as large as a utility power station and as small as a laptop computer.

Fuel cells work like batteries, but they do not run down or need recharging. They produce electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied. A fuel cell consists of two electrodes—a negative electrode (or anode) and a positive electrode (or cathode)—sandwiched around an electrolyte. A fuel, such as hydrogen, is fed to the anode, and air is fed to the cathode. In a hydrogen fuel cell, a catalyst at the anode separates hydrogen molecules into protons and electrons, which take different paths to the cathode. The electrons go through an external circuit, creating a flow of electricity. The protons migrate through the electrolyte to the cathode, where they unite with oxygen and the electrons to produce water and heat.

The benefits of Lr-fuel cells are:

• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
• High Reliability
• Flexibility in installation and operation
• Development of renewable energy resources
• Reduced demand for foreign oil
• Improved environmental quality

Lr-Fuel cell technology has high value and presents an opportunity to help meet the projected increase in demand and need for new generation capacity with clean and high efficiency generation located directly at the customer’s site. Distributed generation (DG) and energy storage increase efficiency, improve end user reliability, and reduce emissions. Fuel cell technology also provides opportunities to maximize the efficiency and cost effectiveness of fuel cells with combined heat and power (CHP) applications. The use of CHP increases the efficiency of on-site energy use by recycling waste thermal energy for many end use applications, including hot or chilled water, space conditioning, and process heat.

Lr Fuel Cells also provide an opportunity for tri-generation to simultaneously produce heat, power, and hydrogen for storage and/or transportation.