John C. Trocciola

Fuel cell operation on landfill gas at Penrose Power Station

This demonstration test successfully demonstrated the operation of a commercial phosphoric acid fuel cell (FC) on landfill gas (LG) at the Penrose Power Station in Sun Valley, CA. Demonstration output included operation up to 137kW; 37.1% efficiency at 120kW; exceptionally low secondary emissions (dry gas, 15% O2) of 0.77ppmV CO, 0.12ppmV NOx, and undetectable SO2; no forced outages with an adjusted availability of 98.5%; and a total of 707h of operation on LG. The LG pretreatment unit (GPU) operated for a total of 2297h, including the 707h with the FC, and documented total sulfur and halide removal to much lower than the specified <3ppmV for the FC. The GPU flare safely disposed of the removed LG contaminants by achieving destruction efficiencies greater than 99%.

Test results for fuel-cell operation on landfill gas

Test results from a demonstration of fuel-cell (FC) energy recovery and control of landfill gas emissions are presented. The project addressed two major issues: (i) the design, construction, and testing of a landfill-gas cleanup system; and (ii) a field test of a commercial phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) power plant operating on the cleaned landfill gas. A summary of test results on the cleanup system and FC operational data are given. These results may encourage the use of landfill gas in FCs, one of the cleanest energy-conversion technologies available.