|
|
DCH Fuel Cells Get Nod at Brooks Air Force Base
(11/8/2001)November 8, 2001––DCH Fuel Cells will be used to power housing units at Brooks U.S. Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Three DCH Enable 3kW fuel cells along with support services is part of a program by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory efforts to demonstrate hydrogen electric power for military use.
The three fuel cells will be delivered by October 2002 to the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), for a one-year demonstration project
The three PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells will be integrated with reformers – allowing the systems to be fueled by natural gas – developed by UOP LLC, a leading supplier of reformer technology to the fuel cell industry. The fuel cells will also be grid connected.
"This award will help us further demonstrate the performance of our fuel cell technology to the U.S. Army," said DCH President and Chief Executive Officer John Donohue. "The primary objective of the project is to install, operate, maintain, monitor, and report data on the fuel cells to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," said Alan Montemayor, project manager for SWRI. "But there are many important secondary objectives, including familiarizing Brooks personnel and other military installations in the San Antonio area with fuel cell technology."
SWRI said that the City Public Service of San Antonio is a partner in the demonstration and plans to provide installation, interconnect, and code compliance assistance in the project. City Public Service plans to gain practical experience in the installation and operation of fuel cells and use that knowledge to determine how fuel cells and distributed generation could benefit their customers.
St. Philip's College, located in San Antonio, is also participating in the project and plans to have students and/or faculty are part of maintenance and operator training and possibly data taking activities during the one-year demonstration.
