Search  
DOE Pulse
  • Number 334  |
  • April 4, 2011

NETL’s fuel cell research: Here, there, and everywhere

Kirk Gerdes working on some analytical equipment (a GC-ICP/MS)

Kirk Gerdes working on some
analytical equipment
(a GC-ICP/MS)

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has facilities in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Morgantown, W.Va.; Houston, Tex.; Albany, Ore.; and Fairbanks, Alaska. To confuse things further, NETL has projects in all 50 states, which means that its researchers are sometimes working far away from home.  As an example, Kirk Gerdes, an NETL fuel cell researcher and research group leader, has spent portions of the past three summers in Alabama investigating the impact of coal-derived trace materials on solid oxide fuel cell anodes.

You might think this teaches self-reliance, but Kirk says that “when you are completing a research project ‘alone’ at an Alabama coal gasification facility in August, you learn the importance of teamwork.”  Although separated from the rest of his research team at NETL’s Morgantown facility, Kirk received the dedicated support of his colleagues at every request. “Despite the nearly 700-mile separation, the team worked together to support the remote activity, and ultimately produced a world-class result,” says Gerdes.

In 2008 and 2009, Kirk led a research effort to design a mobile solid oxide fuel cell testing station and trace metal analysis system, and install them at the National Carbon Capture Center’s gasification facility in Wilsonville, Ala.. He oversaw more than 500 hours of continuous testing of NETL’s mobile fuel cell system (called the multi-cell array, or MCA), collecting the only known data for fuel cell operation on direct coal-derived synthesis gas in the world.  The data are being used to help design cleanup systems for high-efficiency integrated gasification/fuel cell systems.

“Field work extends the thermodynamic simulations and laboratory experiments to ensure that degradation effects in the complicated direct synthesis gas matrix are not more pronounced than expected,” said Gerdes.  “Collection of these data is a major step because it assures developers that the fuel cells will survive in an industrial environment using conventional cleanup technology.”

Gerdes provides technical leadership for 23 fuel cell research projects spanning 4 institutions separated by 2,700 miles.  The team is part of the NETL—Regional University Alliance, a consortium that includes the NETL campuses in Morgantown, Pittsburgh, and Albany, and leading universities, including Pennsylvania State University, Carnegie Mellon University, and West Virginia University.  The research team is conducting research on novel liquid metal anode fuel cell systems, cathode modeling and microstructural engineering, integrated fuel cell/turbine controls, and, of course, the anode trace material exposure projects ongoing in Alabama.

“The portfolio of projects spans a terrific scientific space, from computational models at the atomic scale to integrated systems control development at the pilot-scale,” said Gerdes.  “The geographical distances between researchers are actually the most manageable aspect of our research!”

All of the team’s current research projects are sponsored by the DOE’s Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) program in the Office of Fossil Energy and support the development of high-efficiency, durable solid oxide fuel cell systems for direct conversion of hydrocarbon fuel to electricity.  The SECA program has recently had some impressive achievements, with industry team partners demonstrating 8,000+ hours of operation time on a multi-kW stack.

Submitted by DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory