Final Report Summary - DEMCOPEM-2MW (Demonstration of a combined heat and power 2 MWe PEM fuel cell generator and integration into an existing chlorine production plant)
Executive Summary:
The chlor-alkali industry produces significant amounts of hydrogen as by product and an interesting benefit can be obtained by feeding hydrogen to a PEM fuel cell unit, whose electricity and heat production can cover part of the chemical plant consumptions. The estimated potential of such application is up to 1100 MWel installed in the sole China, a country featuring a large presence of chlor-alkali plants.
This final report presents the modelling, development and first experimental results from field tests of a 2 MW PEM fuel cell power plant, built within the European project DEMCOPEM-2MW and installed in Yingkou, China as the current world’s largest PEM fuel cell installation. After a preliminary introduction to the market potential of PEM Fuel cells in the chlor-alkali industry, it is first discussed an overview of project’s MEA and fuel cell development for long life stationary applications, focusing on the design-for-manufacture process and the high-volume manufacturing route developed for the 2MW plant.
The work then discusses the modelling of the power plant, including a specific lumped model predicting FC stack behaviour as a function of inlet streams conditions and power set point, according to regressed polarization curves. Cells performance decay vs. lifetime reflects long-term stack test data, aiming to evidence the impact on overall energy balances and efficiency of the progression of lifetime. BOP is modelled to simulate auxiliary’s consumption, pressure drops and components operating conditions. The model allows studying different operational strategies that maintain the power production during lifetime, minimizing efficiency losses; as well as to investigate the optimized operating setpoint of the plant at full load and during part-load operation.
Making use of the experience obtained during the DEMCOPEM demonstration project, a roll out phase design was made. Operational cost for the technology improve as result of the project. The economic viability of the technology is strongly dependent of the specific circumstances. A viable business case, assuming an increasing market for PEM fuel cells leading to lower costs and longer life times of fuel cells, is described.
The last part of the report discusses the experimental results, through a complete analysis of the plant performance after plant startup, including energy and mass balances and allowing to validate the model.
The fuel cell performance decrease in China was found to be faster than expected, while the same stacks, and even returned stacks from China, showed a normal performance in a similar plant at the Nouryon site in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. It can be concluded that more attention should be paid to prevent and monitor feed stream contaminations, for both hydrogen and air.
Cumulated indicators over the operational period of more than 2 years regarding energy production, hydrogen consumption and efficiency are also presented.
Project Context and Objectives:
CONTEXT
Chemical industry accounts for nearly 10 % of world energy demand and 7% GHG emissions . Among different chemical sectors, one of the most energy-intensive is the chlor-alkali industry. Its products (chlorine and sodium hydroxide or caustic soda) are widely used in a number of applications: chlorine is a basic ‘building block’ in the industry of vinyls and derivatives (polymers like PVC, resins and elastomers), while caustic soda is an alkali applied in a range of industries including alumina (where caustic soda is a major raw material for alumina refining process), pulp and paper, textile production, food industry, production of soap and other cleaning agents as well as water treatment and effluent control. Chlorine also plays an essential role in the production of high purity silicon used for the manufacture of solar panels and microchips.
Salt brine is the main raw material used to produce chlorine and caustic soda, through an electrolysis process which typically requires from 2.2 to 2.8 MWhel/tonCl and 27.4 GJ/tonCl in terms of primary energy. Electrolysis is mainly accomplished within membrane cells, a technology which has substituted the former mercury-diaphragm cells thanks to a superior environmental compatibility (use of mercury has been increasingly discouraged by legislation in several countries) and efficiency advantages. Energy consumption includes heat required for the concentration of salt brine, usually provided by means of high-pressure steam (about 0.8 ton/tonCl at 200 °C and 10 bar). An interesting feature of this production process is the generation of large quantities of hydrogen (340 Nm3H2/tonCl) as by product .
Different processes for NaOH and Cl production are also nowadays investigated, including the oxygen depolarized cathode (ODC) technology , which features a lower electrical consumption at the expenses of a more complex cell technology, requiring oxygen feeding and renouncing to hydrogen production; however, the electrochemical process is by far the most diffused worldwide in the chlor-alkali industry.
In 2016, European chlorine production was nearly 9.7 Mton, while the U.S. production was nearly 10.8 Mton . China is the largest chlorine producer worldwide, with more than 25 Mton/year production (about 42% of global production) distributed over 180 plants and a continuous growth foreseen for next years.
Hydrogen recovery out of the electrochemical process depends on the installation: it reaches about 90% (usually as feedstock for nearby industries) in Europe, while the remaining is vented, but the share reduces in other countries. In this framework, the possibility of using excess hydrogen to cogenerate electricity and heat, locally consumed by the chemical plant, finds an ideal candidate in the highly efficient and clean technology of PEM fuel cells. The deployment of such technology could contribute through energy saving and global emissions reduction to the plant economics and environmental goals.
The European Project DEMCOPEM-2MW , coordinated by Nouryon [former AkzoNobel] (NL), aims at demonstrating the PEM FC technology scale-up, integrated at a representative scale (being also currently the world’s largest PEM installation) in an actual chlorine production facility. Project goals include showing the system efficiency (at least 50% electrical and up to 85% total, including available heat) and lifetime. Economical design is supported by the development of specific cell membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) production processes at Johnson Matthey (JM, UK), with PEM stacks manufactured by Nedstack Fuel Cell Technology Ltd. (NFCT, NL). Moreover, the plant, designed and built by MTSA (NL), allows fully automated remote operation. Plant modelling, simulation and measurement validation is performed by Politecnico di Milano.
The demonstration plant has been installed by MTSA at the site of Ynnovate Sanzheng Fine Chemicals Co. Ltd in Yingkou, Liaoning province, China, where it has been successfully launched in October 2016. The high electricity prices (up to 2 times higher than in Europe) in several areas in China, the availability of waste hydrogen by many chlor-alkali plants and the rather common shortages in electricity supply make the plant economics and business case attractive. Based on the hydrogen availability, it is estimated that the potential of such application would be up to 1100 MWel installed in the sole China.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the four years DEMCOPEM-2MW project is to design, build and operate a 2 MW power generator, with the following attributes:
• Full integration of heat and power with an existing chlorine production plant
• High net conversion efficiency, i.e. > 50% electric energy on system level and > 85% for combined heat and power
• Long lifetime of system and fuel cells, i.e. over 2 years (16,000 hrs) for fuel cell stacks without any need for repair or maintenance of the membranes. The long-term target is 5 years (40,000 hrs) for fuels cell stacks
• Fully automated way of operation and remote control
• Economical design to reach a competitive price, i.e. < €2,500 / kWe with potential for reaching < €1,500/kWe in 2020. With membrane lifetime of 5 years and high-volume series (> 25 MWe/y) production the cost price of the electricity produced with a PEM power plant is estimated to drop from 0,075 to below 0,04 Euro/kWh.
• Demonstration of power and heat generation for over 2 years i.e. on-stream availability of > 95% for over 16,000 hours, in line with the Annual Implementation Plan 2013 objectives
• Contribute to the general goals of the JTI FCH, as stated in the revised Multi Annual Implementation Plan, to have > 5 MW @ € 3,000/kW installed fuel cell capacity in 2015 and > 50 MW @ € 1,500/kW installed fuel cell capacity in 2020.
Project Results:
All the detailed Technical information (including diagrams and illustrations) are inserted adn explained in the attached PDF report.
Below a summary of the proejct results and main conclusions/analysis.
PROJECT RESULTS
The world’s first 2MW PEM fuel cell power plant has been successfully designed, constructed and integrated into a chlor-alkali (CA) production plant, in Yingkou China.
The chlor-alkali production plant produces chlorine and caustic soda (lye) and high purity hydrogen. The hydrogen contains almost 45% of the energy that is consumed in the plant. In many cases this hydrogen is vented. The project demonstrated the PEM Power Plant technology for converting the hydrogen into electricity, heat and water for use in the chlor-alkali production process, lowering its electricity consumption by 20%.
The main project technical results/KPIs are summarized below:
• Integration of heat and power with an existing chlorine production plant
o 2MW power achieved in operation
o Heat available @ 60°C
o Additional treatment hydrogen / air required; H2 scrubber installed
• High net conversion efficiency 50% electric energy on system level and 80% for combined heat and power
• Demonstration of power and heat generation for over 2 years
• On-stream availability of up to > 95% in an operational period for over 2 years
o Influenced by OSBL (H2/grid availability) and stacks but successfully demonstrated end 2017
• Fully automated way of operation and remote monitoring
• Investment demonstrated for €3,000 / kWe
• A decrease in capital an operational cost for the roll out phase and the specification of a viable business case, assuming an increasing market for PEM fuel cells leading to lower costs and longer life times of fuel cells.
Other results and achievements:
• The plant produced more than 13GWh and made available 7 GWh of thermal energy at 65˚C
• More than 850 tons of hydrogen have been recovered avoiding emission of 15.000 tCO2
• New MEAs technology production developed (with lower Pt cost)
• Developed open-source calculation tool for preliminary economical assessment.
• Two project workshops successfully organised in China
• Several publications and presentations at conferences.
Several chlor-alkali plants have shown serious interest and for a PEM power plant and at least 25 show an attractive business case for the next series PEM power plant. The final selection of the chlor-alkali plant for the demonstration will be based on the attractiveness of the business case and the suitability to act as showcase.
Worldwide the amount of hydrogen produced by chlor-alkali plants would be sufficient to produce about 3,000 MW with a PEM power plant. The ultimate target would be to have at least 1,000 MWe/h produced via a PEM power plant worldwide.
CONCLUSIONS
The chlor-alkali industry features large electricity and heat requirements and produces significant amounts of hydrogen as by product. Hydrogen can feed a PEM fuel cell unit, generating electricity and heat production to cover part of the chemical plant consumptions.
This work presents the development and first experimental results of a 2 MW PEM fuel cell power plant, developed within the European project DEMCOPEM-2MW and installed in Yingkou, China (a country featuring a large presence of chlor-alkali plants) as the current world’s largest PEM fuel cell installation.
A specific MEA and fuel cell development programme, targeting volume production capability while maintaining quality, performance and lifetime, was carried out by Johnson Matthey and Nedstack Fuel Cell Technology.
However, the fuel cell performance decrease in China was found to be faster than expected, while the same stacks, and even returned stacks from China, showed a normal performance in a similar plant at the Nouryon site in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. It can be concluded that more attention should be paid to prevent and monitor feed stream contaminations, for both hydrogen and air.
A model of the PEM voltage-current behaviour and of plant performances (including detailed mass and energy balances) was built and validated successfully against experimental results collected through the plant measurement setup and data acquisition system. Operation showed good availability can be achieved and over the 2 year operating period more than 13.7 GWh of cumulated electricity production, recovering over 870 tons of hydrogen and avoiding nearly 15000 tons of CO2 emissions; thus demonstrating the possibility to achieve significant energy savings. Target of 50% electrical efficiency was achieved, including the demonstration of thermal recovery which allows adding up to 25-30% in terms of total efficiency (ref. hydrogen LHV).
The analysis of plant energy balances suggests further exploitation routes for the available heat, while further simulation activities will explore optimization in plant operating conditions and layout.
Potential Impact:
DEMCOPEM-2MW designed, built and integrated a 2 MW PEM fuel cell power generator in an existing chlorine production plant in China, and started demonstrating power generation with one set of fuel cell stacks and over 95% on-stream availability. Further, it developed MEAs and fuel cell stacks with improved performance and lifetime that will be validated in ANIC’s PEM pilot plant in Delfzijl (and in the PEM demo plant in China) and a roll out plan (exploitation plan) for the Market Entry.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT
At the moment commercialization is most interesting for cases where hydrogen is a waste product, vented to the atmosphere. Large reduction of CO2-emission is possible when the energy content of the otherwise vented hydrogen is used. To enter the market the production of electricity with by-product hydrogen should be competitive with the price from the local grid, taking into account the avoided CO2-emission. The chlor-alkali industry, and to a lesser extend the chlorate industry, generally has favourable contracts with electricity companies as cost of electricity is crucial. In Europe, these tariffs can be as low as € 40/MWh and sometimes even less. Therefore, China has been selected as, in this strongly growing economy, the electricity prices can be as high as €70 to €80/MWh. Moreover, rationing of energy is common practise in various regions of China as the build-up of power plants does not keep pace with the economic growth and growing energy demand. In these situations, i.e. a high electricity prices and rationing of electricity, the business case for a PEM power plant is economically viable as showed in the beginning of this section.
Chlorate plants in the world produce a quantity of hydrogen that would enable PEM fuel cells to generate 300 MW of power continuously. Three molecules of by-product hydrogen are released for every molecule of sodium chlorate. These plants are connected to wood pulp factories, associated with the paper industry. They are often positioned in remote areas with limited possibilities for the utilization of hydrogen. Technically a multiple MW PEM-unit can readily be fitted, but commercial criteria for cost and lifetime, similar to those of the chlor-alkali industry, must also be met.
Some years ago, AkzoNobel developed Remote Controlled Chlorine Production units (RCCP units) as an environmentally friendly alternative for chlorine transportation and as an economic and environmental alternative for smaller plants based on the mercury electrolysis process. The coupling of a PEM FC power unit to an RCCP unit is promising as the hydrogen is freely available in most cases. The size of 1-3 MW is a perfect match for the RCCP-unit as it takes all by-product hydrogen, reducing the intake from the grid by 20 %. The utilization of the heat from the PEM-unit means extra savings in fossil fuels.
The specific benefits of the DEMCOPEM-2MW fuel cell stack are in particular interesting in the following applications (in China, Europe and worldwide):
• Range extension in EV’s; this market has gained substantial traction in Europe and in Asia. TCO and lifetime are essential and will be outcomes of the DEMCOPEM-2MW project
• Grid-balancing and reduction of CO2 emission in electricity production. Fuel cell technology can play an important future role here and relevant companies as State Grid should be made aware of the advancements and reliability of fuel cell technology for large scale power supply
• Base-load power or extended back-up in telecom and utility market. These units typically provide < 10 kW power and with ongoing developments in reformer-technology these markets become within reach. Especially in the larger Southeast Asian region exists a huge demand for reliable (implying very long lifetimes) and clean power supply.
WIDER SOCIETAL IMPLICATION
In December 2015, at the Paris climate conference (COP21), 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal in order to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C. This agreement is due to enter into force in 2020.
Before that date countries need to work on their ‘National Climate Action Plans’ (already prepared before the Paris conference).
One of the most important possible solution for limiting global warming is to reduce or completely eliminate the use of fossil fuel. With this vision in mind the renewable energies became/ will become main actors.
The technology developed in the DEMCOPEM project will provide main advantages in this direction.
The climate will benefit by the reduction in CO2-emission.
The PEM power plant technology, developed within the DEMCOPEM project, will be introduced in other parts of the world and in other applications (e.g. Chlorate, RCCP units). In this phase it is important that sustained R&D efforts are taken to realise continuous cost reductions in Balance of Plants, MEAs and fuel cell stacks. Incentives for supporting the roll out, e.g. subsidies or fiscal measures for customers will be useful in the Market Entry phase.
The next step is the Market Development phase. In this phase, the market in PEM FC power plants has become self-sustained and cost-efficient for a growing number of applications all over the world.
The chosen project structure and approach ensures that the technology value chain in Europe now gets the opportunity to launch and develop as the business case for a PEM power plant in China is economically favourable. A successful field demonstration will pave the way for commercial introduction of PEM power plants in China (over 20 sites and potential for over 50 similar sized PEM power plants), will open up opportunities for introduction of the PEM power plant technology in other parts of the world and in chlorate and RCCP processes and will enable sustained research and development efforts to achieve cost reductions in fuel cell stacks and BoP, improved performance and longer lifetimes.
Demonstrating in China means a continuation of the development of the PPP technology. As soon as the PPP technology becomes cost competitive in Europe, it is ready for introduction in the EU.
External factors that may determine whether the impact will be achieved
Tax on CO2-emission would raise the price of electricity from the grid appreciably and would make the PEM-unit more competitive. Electricity produced with the most efficient natural-gas-fired units (50 % efficiency) leads to an emission of 0.4 tons of CO2 per MWh. A charge of € 50 per ton of CO2 raises the electricity price by € 20/MWh. Power produced with coal-fired units would be more expensive by € 60/MWh.
Further, the possibilities will be assessed at the Chinese Government to acquire subsidy for the introduction of this type of sustainable and energy saving technology; especially after a successful demonstration.
For fuel cell stacks also outside the chemical industry important opportunities in China and the Southeast Asian region are imminent.
The DEMCOPEM-2MW fuel cell stack (commercialized as XXL stack) is designed for high efficiency and exceptionally long lifetime. The actual demonstration of these features in the power plant will help to convince potential Chinese stack customers of the benefits of this specific stack technology over other suppliers.
MAIN DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES PERFORMED
During the project the dissemination of the project results has been performed via:
• The project website --> update with project related news and results
• Newsletter(s) --> distributed during the project lifetime
• Press release/Official Communication --> of the final project workshops in China
• Presentation of project results at conferences and exhibitions --> during the three project periods the technology and some of the result of the DEMCOPEM project have been presented at international conferences. The project results and developed technologies in2018 have been presented during:
• Presentation at Chinese Chlor-Alkali conference (March 2018)
• Presentation at ASME Power & Energy Conference (June 2018)
Presentation at EuCheMS conference, Liverpool, UK (August 2018)
Scientific paper submitted:
• “Modelling, Development and Preliminary Testing of a 2 MW PEM Fuel Cell Plant Fuelled With Hydrogen from a Chlor-Alkali Industry”, S. Campanari, G. Guandalini, J. Coolegem, J. ten Have, P. Hayes, A.H. Pichel, Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, under review.
PREPARATIVE EXPLOITATION ACTIVITIES:
In the last project period the main focus for this task was dedicated on the possibilities to find new clients for exploiting the technology. It is clear than the most relevant market is still China and Asia in general.
A Sino-Dutch Joint Venture has been created (by Nedstack).
The identified exploitable results are:
•- New MEAs design and production → --> Experience of real-world operation in the Chinese chlor-alkali industry.
•- Model for plant performance
Further, we did (and still are) also explored the possible fit the DEMCOPEM technology may have in large scale hydrogen projects in the context of the energy transition in Europe.
--> Part of the DEMCOPEM technology is used in a linked/follow up FCH JU project GRASSHOPPER. An important outcome of the DEMCOPEM-2MW project has been the necessity of reduced overall costs. Therefore, a step change in cost/kW is required, which has urged the development of a completely new stack platform for Nedstack within this new project
--> From a business prospective, after the project workshop in China it was clear Asia is still the most obvious market for the technology. Several leads and possible interested clients showed interest in the project during the project workshop. The experience obtained in the DEMCOPEM project will be usefully implemented in this roll out phase of the PEM Power Plants. This experience mainly concerns design and operational aspects.
Heart of the system are the PEM fuel cells including the Membrane Electrode Assemblies. Design improvements and possible cost reduction as result from production optimization and higher production volumes, for a part derived from PEM technology improvements for mobile and automotive applications, will lead to cost reduction for this part of the system. Lifetime increase of the fuel cells is an important factor in the lowering of OPEX cost. Optimization of the fuel cell design, especially an increased capacity per fuel cell, in combination with several other improvements, will also lead to and decrease in CAPEX and OPEX of the Balance of Plant.
For economically viable applications of the PEM Power Plant in the roll-out applications, a target for CAPEX and OPEX is specified in Deliverable D2.7 Design first series PEM Power Plants for the roll out phase.
--> During the execution of the DEMCOPEM project it became clear that a new application for the PEM Power plant was seriously developing. This concerns the storage of electrical energy from renewable sources, as wind and solar, in a Power to Power plant. This Power to Power application concerns a combination of a electrolyser, hydrogen storage and a fuel cell generator. A number of leads for new projects are identified.
--> Finally, also strong interest in MW size PEM power plants has been demonstrated for marine applications. Although additional requirements apply for ships, outputs in the MW range, long lifetimes, and (near) continuous operation as demonstrated in the DEMCOPEM project are also essential for these applications
Nedstack’s XXL stack platform, using the DEMCOPEM MEA is also applied for other heavy duty applications, especially transport (e.g. busses)
List of Websites:
PROEJCT WEBSITE:
www.demcopem-2mw.eu
CONTACT DETAILS:
- Nouryon/AkzoNobel: Ton Pichel [Ton.Pichel@nouryon.com]
- Nedstack Fuel Cell Technology: Jorg Coolegem [Jorg.Coolegem@nedstack.com]
- MTSA technopower: Jan ten Have [jan.tenhave@mtsa.nl]
- Johnson Matthey: Paddy Hayes [paddy.hayes@matthey.com]
- Politecnico di Milano: Stefano Campanari [stefano.campanari@polimi.it]
The chlor-alkali industry produces significant amounts of hydrogen as by product and an interesting benefit can be obtained by feeding hydrogen to a PEM fuel cell unit, whose electricity and heat production can cover part of the chemical plant consumptions. The estimated potential of such application is up to 1100 MWel installed in the sole China, a country featuring a large presence of chlor-alkali plants.
This final report presents the modelling, development and first experimental results from field tests of a 2 MW PEM fuel cell power plant, built within the European project DEMCOPEM-2MW and installed in Yingkou, China as the current world’s largest PEM fuel cell installation. After a preliminary introduction to the market potential of PEM Fuel cells in the chlor-alkali industry, it is first discussed an overview of project’s MEA and fuel cell development for long life stationary applications, focusing on the design-for-manufacture process and the high-volume manufacturing route developed for the 2MW plant.
The work then discusses the modelling of the power plant, including a specific lumped model predicting FC stack behaviour as a function of inlet streams conditions and power set point, according to regressed polarization curves. Cells performance decay vs. lifetime reflects long-term stack test data, aiming to evidence the impact on overall energy balances and efficiency of the progression of lifetime. BOP is modelled to simulate auxiliary’s consumption, pressure drops and components operating conditions. The model allows studying different operational strategies that maintain the power production during lifetime, minimizing efficiency losses; as well as to investigate the optimized operating setpoint of the plant at full load and during part-load operation.
Making use of the experience obtained during the DEMCOPEM demonstration project, a roll out phase design was made. Operational cost for the technology improve as result of the project. The economic viability of the technology is strongly dependent of the specific circumstances. A viable business case, assuming an increasing market for PEM fuel cells leading to lower costs and longer life times of fuel cells, is described.
The last part of the report discusses the experimental results, through a complete analysis of the plant performance after plant startup, including energy and mass balances and allowing to validate the model.
The fuel cell performance decrease in China was found to be faster than expected, while the same stacks, and even returned stacks from China, showed a normal performance in a similar plant at the Nouryon site in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. It can be concluded that more attention should be paid to prevent and monitor feed stream contaminations, for both hydrogen and air.
Cumulated indicators over the operational period of more than 2 years regarding energy production, hydrogen consumption and efficiency are also presented.
Project Context and Objectives:
CONTEXT
Chemical industry accounts for nearly 10 % of world energy demand and 7% GHG emissions . Among different chemical sectors, one of the most energy-intensive is the chlor-alkali industry. Its products (chlorine and sodium hydroxide or caustic soda) are widely used in a number of applications: chlorine is a basic ‘building block’ in the industry of vinyls and derivatives (polymers like PVC, resins and elastomers), while caustic soda is an alkali applied in a range of industries including alumina (where caustic soda is a major raw material for alumina refining process), pulp and paper, textile production, food industry, production of soap and other cleaning agents as well as water treatment and effluent control. Chlorine also plays an essential role in the production of high purity silicon used for the manufacture of solar panels and microchips.
Salt brine is the main raw material used to produce chlorine and caustic soda, through an electrolysis process which typically requires from 2.2 to 2.8 MWhel/tonCl and 27.4 GJ/tonCl in terms of primary energy. Electrolysis is mainly accomplished within membrane cells, a technology which has substituted the former mercury-diaphragm cells thanks to a superior environmental compatibility (use of mercury has been increasingly discouraged by legislation in several countries) and efficiency advantages. Energy consumption includes heat required for the concentration of salt brine, usually provided by means of high-pressure steam (about 0.8 ton/tonCl at 200 °C and 10 bar). An interesting feature of this production process is the generation of large quantities of hydrogen (340 Nm3H2/tonCl) as by product .
Different processes for NaOH and Cl production are also nowadays investigated, including the oxygen depolarized cathode (ODC) technology , which features a lower electrical consumption at the expenses of a more complex cell technology, requiring oxygen feeding and renouncing to hydrogen production; however, the electrochemical process is by far the most diffused worldwide in the chlor-alkali industry.
In 2016, European chlorine production was nearly 9.7 Mton, while the U.S. production was nearly 10.8 Mton . China is the largest chlorine producer worldwide, with more than 25 Mton/year production (about 42% of global production) distributed over 180 plants and a continuous growth foreseen for next years.
Hydrogen recovery out of the electrochemical process depends on the installation: it reaches about 90% (usually as feedstock for nearby industries) in Europe, while the remaining is vented, but the share reduces in other countries. In this framework, the possibility of using excess hydrogen to cogenerate electricity and heat, locally consumed by the chemical plant, finds an ideal candidate in the highly efficient and clean technology of PEM fuel cells. The deployment of such technology could contribute through energy saving and global emissions reduction to the plant economics and environmental goals.
The European Project DEMCOPEM-2MW , coordinated by Nouryon [former AkzoNobel] (NL), aims at demonstrating the PEM FC technology scale-up, integrated at a representative scale (being also currently the world’s largest PEM installation) in an actual chlorine production facility. Project goals include showing the system efficiency (at least 50% electrical and up to 85% total, including available heat) and lifetime. Economical design is supported by the development of specific cell membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) production processes at Johnson Matthey (JM, UK), with PEM stacks manufactured by Nedstack Fuel Cell Technology Ltd. (NFCT, NL). Moreover, the plant, designed and built by MTSA (NL), allows fully automated remote operation. Plant modelling, simulation and measurement validation is performed by Politecnico di Milano.
The demonstration plant has been installed by MTSA at the site of Ynnovate Sanzheng Fine Chemicals Co. Ltd in Yingkou, Liaoning province, China, where it has been successfully launched in October 2016. The high electricity prices (up to 2 times higher than in Europe) in several areas in China, the availability of waste hydrogen by many chlor-alkali plants and the rather common shortages in electricity supply make the plant economics and business case attractive. Based on the hydrogen availability, it is estimated that the potential of such application would be up to 1100 MWel installed in the sole China.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the four years DEMCOPEM-2MW project is to design, build and operate a 2 MW power generator, with the following attributes:
• Full integration of heat and power with an existing chlorine production plant
• High net conversion efficiency, i.e. > 50% electric energy on system level and > 85% for combined heat and power
• Long lifetime of system and fuel cells, i.e. over 2 years (16,000 hrs) for fuel cell stacks without any need for repair or maintenance of the membranes. The long-term target is 5 years (40,000 hrs) for fuels cell stacks
• Fully automated way of operation and remote control
• Economical design to reach a competitive price, i.e. < €2,500 / kWe with potential for reaching < €1,500/kWe in 2020. With membrane lifetime of 5 years and high-volume series (> 25 MWe/y) production the cost price of the electricity produced with a PEM power plant is estimated to drop from 0,075 to below 0,04 Euro/kWh.
• Demonstration of power and heat generation for over 2 years i.e. on-stream availability of > 95% for over 16,000 hours, in line with the Annual Implementation Plan 2013 objectives
• Contribute to the general goals of the JTI FCH, as stated in the revised Multi Annual Implementation Plan, to have > 5 MW @ € 3,000/kW installed fuel cell capacity in 2015 and > 50 MW @ € 1,500/kW installed fuel cell capacity in 2020.
Project Results:
All the detailed Technical information (including diagrams and illustrations) are inserted adn explained in the attached PDF report.
Below a summary of the proejct results and main conclusions/analysis.
PROJECT RESULTS
The world’s first 2MW PEM fuel cell power plant has been successfully designed, constructed and integrated into a chlor-alkali (CA) production plant, in Yingkou China.
The chlor-alkali production plant produces chlorine and caustic soda (lye) and high purity hydrogen. The hydrogen contains almost 45% of the energy that is consumed in the plant. In many cases this hydrogen is vented. The project demonstrated the PEM Power Plant technology for converting the hydrogen into electricity, heat and water for use in the chlor-alkali production process, lowering its electricity consumption by 20%.
The main project technical results/KPIs are summarized below:
• Integration of heat and power with an existing chlorine production plant
o 2MW power achieved in operation
o Heat available @ 60°C
o Additional treatment hydrogen / air required; H2 scrubber installed
• High net conversion efficiency 50% electric energy on system level and 80% for combined heat and power
• Demonstration of power and heat generation for over 2 years
• On-stream availability of up to > 95% in an operational period for over 2 years
o Influenced by OSBL (H2/grid availability) and stacks but successfully demonstrated end 2017
• Fully automated way of operation and remote monitoring
• Investment demonstrated for €3,000 / kWe
• A decrease in capital an operational cost for the roll out phase and the specification of a viable business case, assuming an increasing market for PEM fuel cells leading to lower costs and longer life times of fuel cells.
Other results and achievements:
• The plant produced more than 13GWh and made available 7 GWh of thermal energy at 65˚C
• More than 850 tons of hydrogen have been recovered avoiding emission of 15.000 tCO2
• New MEAs technology production developed (with lower Pt cost)
• Developed open-source calculation tool for preliminary economical assessment.
• Two project workshops successfully organised in China
• Several publications and presentations at conferences.
Several chlor-alkali plants have shown serious interest and for a PEM power plant and at least 25 show an attractive business case for the next series PEM power plant. The final selection of the chlor-alkali plant for the demonstration will be based on the attractiveness of the business case and the suitability to act as showcase.
Worldwide the amount of hydrogen produced by chlor-alkali plants would be sufficient to produce about 3,000 MW with a PEM power plant. The ultimate target would be to have at least 1,000 MWe/h produced via a PEM power plant worldwide.
CONCLUSIONS
The chlor-alkali industry features large electricity and heat requirements and produces significant amounts of hydrogen as by product. Hydrogen can feed a PEM fuel cell unit, generating electricity and heat production to cover part of the chemical plant consumptions.
This work presents the development and first experimental results of a 2 MW PEM fuel cell power plant, developed within the European project DEMCOPEM-2MW and installed in Yingkou, China (a country featuring a large presence of chlor-alkali plants) as the current world’s largest PEM fuel cell installation.
A specific MEA and fuel cell development programme, targeting volume production capability while maintaining quality, performance and lifetime, was carried out by Johnson Matthey and Nedstack Fuel Cell Technology.
However, the fuel cell performance decrease in China was found to be faster than expected, while the same stacks, and even returned stacks from China, showed a normal performance in a similar plant at the Nouryon site in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. It can be concluded that more attention should be paid to prevent and monitor feed stream contaminations, for both hydrogen and air.
A model of the PEM voltage-current behaviour and of plant performances (including detailed mass and energy balances) was built and validated successfully against experimental results collected through the plant measurement setup and data acquisition system. Operation showed good availability can be achieved and over the 2 year operating period more than 13.7 GWh of cumulated electricity production, recovering over 870 tons of hydrogen and avoiding nearly 15000 tons of CO2 emissions; thus demonstrating the possibility to achieve significant energy savings. Target of 50% electrical efficiency was achieved, including the demonstration of thermal recovery which allows adding up to 25-30% in terms of total efficiency (ref. hydrogen LHV).
The analysis of plant energy balances suggests further exploitation routes for the available heat, while further simulation activities will explore optimization in plant operating conditions and layout.
Potential Impact:
DEMCOPEM-2MW designed, built and integrated a 2 MW PEM fuel cell power generator in an existing chlorine production plant in China, and started demonstrating power generation with one set of fuel cell stacks and over 95% on-stream availability. Further, it developed MEAs and fuel cell stacks with improved performance and lifetime that will be validated in ANIC’s PEM pilot plant in Delfzijl (and in the PEM demo plant in China) and a roll out plan (exploitation plan) for the Market Entry.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT
At the moment commercialization is most interesting for cases where hydrogen is a waste product, vented to the atmosphere. Large reduction of CO2-emission is possible when the energy content of the otherwise vented hydrogen is used. To enter the market the production of electricity with by-product hydrogen should be competitive with the price from the local grid, taking into account the avoided CO2-emission. The chlor-alkali industry, and to a lesser extend the chlorate industry, generally has favourable contracts with electricity companies as cost of electricity is crucial. In Europe, these tariffs can be as low as € 40/MWh and sometimes even less. Therefore, China has been selected as, in this strongly growing economy, the electricity prices can be as high as €70 to €80/MWh. Moreover, rationing of energy is common practise in various regions of China as the build-up of power plants does not keep pace with the economic growth and growing energy demand. In these situations, i.e. a high electricity prices and rationing of electricity, the business case for a PEM power plant is economically viable as showed in the beginning of this section.
Chlorate plants in the world produce a quantity of hydrogen that would enable PEM fuel cells to generate 300 MW of power continuously. Three molecules of by-product hydrogen are released for every molecule of sodium chlorate. These plants are connected to wood pulp factories, associated with the paper industry. They are often positioned in remote areas with limited possibilities for the utilization of hydrogen. Technically a multiple MW PEM-unit can readily be fitted, but commercial criteria for cost and lifetime, similar to those of the chlor-alkali industry, must also be met.
Some years ago, AkzoNobel developed Remote Controlled Chlorine Production units (RCCP units) as an environmentally friendly alternative for chlorine transportation and as an economic and environmental alternative for smaller plants based on the mercury electrolysis process. The coupling of a PEM FC power unit to an RCCP unit is promising as the hydrogen is freely available in most cases. The size of 1-3 MW is a perfect match for the RCCP-unit as it takes all by-product hydrogen, reducing the intake from the grid by 20 %. The utilization of the heat from the PEM-unit means extra savings in fossil fuels.
The specific benefits of the DEMCOPEM-2MW fuel cell stack are in particular interesting in the following applications (in China, Europe and worldwide):
• Range extension in EV’s; this market has gained substantial traction in Europe and in Asia. TCO and lifetime are essential and will be outcomes of the DEMCOPEM-2MW project
• Grid-balancing and reduction of CO2 emission in electricity production. Fuel cell technology can play an important future role here and relevant companies as State Grid should be made aware of the advancements and reliability of fuel cell technology for large scale power supply
• Base-load power or extended back-up in telecom and utility market. These units typically provide < 10 kW power and with ongoing developments in reformer-technology these markets become within reach. Especially in the larger Southeast Asian region exists a huge demand for reliable (implying very long lifetimes) and clean power supply.
WIDER SOCIETAL IMPLICATION
In December 2015, at the Paris climate conference (COP21), 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal in order to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C. This agreement is due to enter into force in 2020.
Before that date countries need to work on their ‘National Climate Action Plans’ (already prepared before the Paris conference).
One of the most important possible solution for limiting global warming is to reduce or completely eliminate the use of fossil fuel. With this vision in mind the renewable energies became/ will become main actors.
The technology developed in the DEMCOPEM project will provide main advantages in this direction.
The climate will benefit by the reduction in CO2-emission.
The PEM power plant technology, developed within the DEMCOPEM project, will be introduced in other parts of the world and in other applications (e.g. Chlorate, RCCP units). In this phase it is important that sustained R&D efforts are taken to realise continuous cost reductions in Balance of Plants, MEAs and fuel cell stacks. Incentives for supporting the roll out, e.g. subsidies or fiscal measures for customers will be useful in the Market Entry phase.
The next step is the Market Development phase. In this phase, the market in PEM FC power plants has become self-sustained and cost-efficient for a growing number of applications all over the world.
The chosen project structure and approach ensures that the technology value chain in Europe now gets the opportunity to launch and develop as the business case for a PEM power plant in China is economically favourable. A successful field demonstration will pave the way for commercial introduction of PEM power plants in China (over 20 sites and potential for over 50 similar sized PEM power plants), will open up opportunities for introduction of the PEM power plant technology in other parts of the world and in chlorate and RCCP processes and will enable sustained research and development efforts to achieve cost reductions in fuel cell stacks and BoP, improved performance and longer lifetimes.
Demonstrating in China means a continuation of the development of the PPP technology. As soon as the PPP technology becomes cost competitive in Europe, it is ready for introduction in the EU.
External factors that may determine whether the impact will be achieved
Tax on CO2-emission would raise the price of electricity from the grid appreciably and would make the PEM-unit more competitive. Electricity produced with the most efficient natural-gas-fired units (50 % efficiency) leads to an emission of 0.4 tons of CO2 per MWh. A charge of € 50 per ton of CO2 raises the electricity price by € 20/MWh. Power produced with coal-fired units would be more expensive by € 60/MWh.
Further, the possibilities will be assessed at the Chinese Government to acquire subsidy for the introduction of this type of sustainable and energy saving technology; especially after a successful demonstration.
For fuel cell stacks also outside the chemical industry important opportunities in China and the Southeast Asian region are imminent.
The DEMCOPEM-2MW fuel cell stack (commercialized as XXL stack) is designed for high efficiency and exceptionally long lifetime. The actual demonstration of these features in the power plant will help to convince potential Chinese stack customers of the benefits of this specific stack technology over other suppliers.
MAIN DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES PERFORMED
During the project the dissemination of the project results has been performed via:
• The project website --> update with project related news and results
• Newsletter(s) --> distributed during the project lifetime
• Press release/Official Communication --> of the final project workshops in China
• Presentation of project results at conferences and exhibitions --> during the three project periods the technology and some of the result of the DEMCOPEM project have been presented at international conferences. The project results and developed technologies in2018 have been presented during:
• Presentation at Chinese Chlor-Alkali conference (March 2018)
• Presentation at ASME Power & Energy Conference (June 2018)
Presentation at EuCheMS conference, Liverpool, UK (August 2018)
Scientific paper submitted:
• “Modelling, Development and Preliminary Testing of a 2 MW PEM Fuel Cell Plant Fuelled With Hydrogen from a Chlor-Alkali Industry”, S. Campanari, G. Guandalini, J. Coolegem, J. ten Have, P. Hayes, A.H. Pichel, Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, under review.
PREPARATIVE EXPLOITATION ACTIVITIES:
In the last project period the main focus for this task was dedicated on the possibilities to find new clients for exploiting the technology. It is clear than the most relevant market is still China and Asia in general.
A Sino-Dutch Joint Venture has been created (by Nedstack).
The identified exploitable results are:
•- New MEAs design and production → --> Experience of real-world operation in the Chinese chlor-alkali industry.
•- Model for plant performance
Further, we did (and still are) also explored the possible fit the DEMCOPEM technology may have in large scale hydrogen projects in the context of the energy transition in Europe.
--> Part of the DEMCOPEM technology is used in a linked/follow up FCH JU project GRASSHOPPER. An important outcome of the DEMCOPEM-2MW project has been the necessity of reduced overall costs. Therefore, a step change in cost/kW is required, which has urged the development of a completely new stack platform for Nedstack within this new project
--> From a business prospective, after the project workshop in China it was clear Asia is still the most obvious market for the technology. Several leads and possible interested clients showed interest in the project during the project workshop. The experience obtained in the DEMCOPEM project will be usefully implemented in this roll out phase of the PEM Power Plants. This experience mainly concerns design and operational aspects.
Heart of the system are the PEM fuel cells including the Membrane Electrode Assemblies. Design improvements and possible cost reduction as result from production optimization and higher production volumes, for a part derived from PEM technology improvements for mobile and automotive applications, will lead to cost reduction for this part of the system. Lifetime increase of the fuel cells is an important factor in the lowering of OPEX cost. Optimization of the fuel cell design, especially an increased capacity per fuel cell, in combination with several other improvements, will also lead to and decrease in CAPEX and OPEX of the Balance of Plant.
For economically viable applications of the PEM Power Plant in the roll-out applications, a target for CAPEX and OPEX is specified in Deliverable D2.7 Design first series PEM Power Plants for the roll out phase.
--> During the execution of the DEMCOPEM project it became clear that a new application for the PEM Power plant was seriously developing. This concerns the storage of electrical energy from renewable sources, as wind and solar, in a Power to Power plant. This Power to Power application concerns a combination of a electrolyser, hydrogen storage and a fuel cell generator. A number of leads for new projects are identified.
--> Finally, also strong interest in MW size PEM power plants has been demonstrated for marine applications. Although additional requirements apply for ships, outputs in the MW range, long lifetimes, and (near) continuous operation as demonstrated in the DEMCOPEM project are also essential for these applications
Nedstack’s XXL stack platform, using the DEMCOPEM MEA is also applied for other heavy duty applications, especially transport (e.g. busses)
List of Websites:
PROEJCT WEBSITE:
www.demcopem-2mw.eu
CONTACT DETAILS:
- Nouryon/AkzoNobel: Ton Pichel [Ton.Pichel@nouryon.com]
- Nedstack Fuel Cell Technology: Jorg Coolegem [Jorg.Coolegem@nedstack.com]
- MTSA technopower: Jan ten Have [jan.tenhave@mtsa.nl]
- Johnson Matthey: Paddy Hayes [paddy.hayes@matthey.com]
- Politecnico di Milano: Stefano Campanari [stefano.campanari@polimi.it]
