Residential Natural Gas Fuel Cells

The most efficient small scale electricity generator.

Residential natural gas fuel cells.

A home fuel cell or a residential fuel cell is an electrochemical cell used for primary or backup power generation similar to larger industrial stationary fuel cells but built at a smaller scale for residential use these fuel cells are usually based on combined heat and power chp or micro combined heat and power microchp technology generating both power and heated water or air. If you have access to natural gas and you do need electricity and heat in your home just about everyone then i think this is a great technology. Fuel cells will continue to produce and store energy as long as they are connected to your natural gas fuel source. By the way we work primarily with pem fuel cells so this article will mostly be addressing those.

Affordable natural gas fuel cell power the redox cube the future of distributed generation the redox cube is a 25 kw natural gas fueled stationary fuel cell power system. The fuel cell industry changes so frequently if there is a provider for residential fuel cells out there currently delivering actual products please leave a comment and a link or email us. The system supplies around 13 000 kwh kilowatt hours of low emission electricity per year. With a size of roughly one cubic meter and a weight under 450 kg the cube can be installed outdoors or indoors.

This provides a critical continuous power supply for buildings like hospitals that rely on multiple forms of backup power to ensure safe steady operation. Bluegen is a micro chp system combined heat and power based on fuel cell technology and optimised for maximum use and benefit of electricity to supply small businesses private households or public buildings with highly efficient power and heat. The residential system will be based on watt s current imperium tm system a 1kw hybrid sofc unit converted to operate on readily available natural gas. Natural gas fuel cells 101 fuel cells might sound futuristic but they were invented in 1932 and put to commercial use by nasa in the 1950s.

Fuel cell systems from these manufacturers are currently being used to generate ac or dc electricity heat water or any combination of the three. This presents a powerful opportunity to provide reliable efficient and affordable site generated electricity without the limitations of other power production and distribution systems. This is a partial list of companies currently producing commercially available fuel cell systems for use in residential commercial or industrial settings. Improving the picture for residential fuel cells is that there is a federal tax incentive for them.

But it has seemed to be very much a thing of the future and not of today in terms of consumer use of fuel cells for power generation. But along comes a company to my attention of late that seems to be proving that wrong.