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ASsessment of SOFC CHP systems build on the TEchnology of htceRamIX 3

Final Report Summary - ASTERIX3 (ASsessment of SOFC CHP systems build on the TEchnology of htceRamIX 3)

Executive Summary:
The main scientific and technological (S&T) objectives of the Asterix3 project were to develop and optimize the Proof of Concept M-CHP system, based on improved subsystems to achieve the targets summarized in the below:

• Electrical efficiency (Peak) 35% net AC efficiency
• Electrical efficiency (Nominal avg.) 30% net AC efficiency
• Total efficiency of the system reached values up to 90%
• Modulation range demonstrated of 4:1 in terms of gas input
• Demonstration of 5000 hours of operation
• Ability to withstand 10 thermal cycles
• Integration of an auxiliary heater
• Integration with the heating system and storage
• Injection of AC electric output to the grid
• Ability to start-up and shut-down without forming gas


Even though we haven’t been able to achieve all the targets we initially setup for the project the partners view the outcome of the project as a moderate success. We have as a consortium achieved much more in the last part of the project than we thought possible - Especially taken into account the many delays and problems we ran into during the project.

Project Context and Objectives:
The market potential for SOFC applications is huge, and there is an extensive pull from OEM customers and gas/energy utilities for products with the value proposition that SOFC systems, when fully developed, can provide.

The SOFC CHP systems are to provide a reliable heating/cooling, electricity and hot water supply to house/apartment owners or residents. The value proposition arises from the potential high efficiency and thus improved end user economy with which this can be provided.

The belief in a massive commercial as well as energy savings potential within the SOFC CHP application is the driver behind a large number of publically supported R&D and demonstration programs – not only in the EU and a large number of the individual member states and in several North American and Asian countries.

Looking 5-10 years ahead the Project consortium/partners aim at having developed the technology and the CHP application to be capable of running on a wide range of different fuels. Among the most promising fuels are pure hydrogen, methanol, ethanol, biodiesel, biogas and natural gas. To focus and thus reduce the time to market for our CHP product, we have for the time being chosen to develop a natural gas fuelled residential CHP system. This choice is motivated by the existing infrastructure for natural gas distribution and by the interest of gas suppliers in the western world on Fuel Cell based Combined Heating and Power applications (FC-CHP systems), proving the potential of the product. Modification of the product to run on renewable fuels, the only long term economically and environmentally sustainable solution, will be addressed once the first NG products are released.

This project constitutes an essential step in the process of making residential SOFC CHP systems technologically ready for commercialization. Three out of four of the partners in this project have been working closely together since 2005 (HTceramix, Dantherm Power and EIFER). The partners have by now proven the potential lying within their technology via several prototype developments and tests.

The technological performance of the prototype systems developed and tested internally at HTceramix and EIFER’s laboratories is summarized in the following:

• Electric power output of 770W gross on the stack
• Electrical efficiency of more than 35% (net DC efficiency of ca. 30%)
• Total efficiency of the system reached values up to 78% in EIFER facilities
• Modulation range demonstrated of 2:1 in terms of gas input
• System control is partly automated and human intervention is still necessary
• Current system volume is 60*60*100 cm
• Several thousand hours of operation gathered on μCHP system over the project duration
• Performance degradation of the fuel cell unit was still important with values around 10%/1000h operation
• Heat storage has been developed using latest state-of-the art techniques such as stratification to limit the heat losses
• Concepts for the integration of the CHP system in the household has been established

The consortium has thus so far achieved its goals in providing a serious evaluation of the feasibility of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) based μCHP. A prototype evaluation, for most aspects of the system, has been performed and the current performance forms an excellent base to start the work on the next phases towards commercialization.

This project - the next phase in this process has the main objective of:
Building and testing a fully automated and integrated SOFC CHP system capable of fulfilling end user demands

From the knowledge gathered within the previous project, the general targets that will have to be fulfilled by the μCHP system are:

• high lifetime and reliability
• high performance over the lifetime
• low cost to enter the market
• limited maintenance cost

The work proposed in this project aims to address each of these general targets.

The main scientific and technological (S&T) objectives of the Asterix3 project are to develop and optimize the Proof of Concept system, based on improved subsystems, a full automatic control system, and other new features, to achieve the following targets:

• Electrical efficiency (Peak) 35% net AC efficiency
• Electrical efficiency (Nominal avg.) 30% net AC efficiency
• Total efficiency of the system reached values up to 90%
• Modulation range demonstrated of 4:1 in terms of gas input
• Demonstration of 5000 hours of operation
• Ability to withstand 10 thermal cycles
• Integration of an auxiliary heater
• Integration with the heating system and storage
• Injection of AC electric output to the grid
• Ability to start-up and shut-down without forming gas

We have had a lot of challenges during the project- but in the end almost all targets were achieved:


Project Results:
attahed as pdf
Potential Impact:
attached as pdf
List of Websites:
asterix3.eu
Dantherm Power A/S
Per Balslev; peb@dantherm.com
Claus Torbensen; clt@dantherm.com