Powering up: fuel cell technology positioned as viable alternative to generators.

Supplying electricity to military bases in austere combat zones can present huge logistics and transportation challenges. During a recent deployment to Iraq, Army Lt. Col. Rich O'Connor, who commanded the support squadron for the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, required many large generators to supply electricity to the unit's base camp there.

"To power a grid is astronomic," he told an industry conference. "We need to start moving towards alternative fuel capability."

Developers of fuel cell technologies are confident that they can answer the call.

One company currently trying to garner attention from military energy planners says that molten carbonate fuel cells could produce enough electricity at highly efficient rates and with low emissions, which would make them suitable for powering military bases in remote locations.

Molten carbonate fuel cells have been developed for natural gas and coal-based power plants for electrical utility, industrial and military applications.

Ansaldo Fuel Cells, based in Genoa, Italy, has produced a molten carbonate fuel cell that fits on a flatbed truck and can generate one megawatt of electricity on natural gas. A 1-megawatt capacity power plant produces enough electricity to power 750 households. Work is in progress to increase that generating capacity to 4 megawatts and above by using fuels rich in hydrogen and carbon monoxide, said Ansaldo officials during a recent briefing.

The technology has a 50 percent electrical efficiency rate, they said. If the waste heat is also utilized by the system, the efficiency can reach 85 percent.

Fuel cells, on a basic level, produce electricity through a chemical reaction that takes place at two electrodes--the positively charged cathode and the negatively charged anode. Hydrogen atoms enter the anode and are stripped of their electrons, becoming ionized hydrogen atoms. The electrons are routed through wires to provide electrical current as the hydrogen ions pass through an electrolyte to the cathode, where the ions and the electrons combine with oxygen to form water--the emission that makes such power generators "greener" than conventional electricity plants.

There are several types of fuel cells. Molten carbonate fuel cells, as the name implies, use compounds of lithium-potassium carbonate salts as the electrolyte. When heated to approximately 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, the salts melt into a liquid state. Though the nickel catalyst that these systems use are less expensive than others, the fuel cells require additional carbon dioxide to replenish the carbonate ions that are used up in the reactions.

Ansaldo officials said what sets their fuel cell design apart from the competition is the company's "twin stack configuration." Such an arrangement separates critical components and cuts down on costs, they said.

To derive pure hydrogen from fuel requires a reformer. The reforming process can occur within or outside the fuel cell stack. Internal reformers benefit from the heat generated from inside the stack while external reformers give operators the flexibility to change catalysts without altering the stack design to accommodate different types of fuels.

Ansaldo claims that its "modular integrated reformer" combines the advantages of both designs. Because it is internal to the vessel that contains the stack, the reformer uses the fuel cell's generated heat to sustain the reforming process so external heat is unnecessary. But it still permits catalysts to be exchanged without impacting the stack design.

"We can easily replace the reforming catalyst, so that we can reconstitute the power plant to be able to run on different fuel," said Bartolomeo Marcenaro, business development manager for Ansaldo.

"This is one of the major technical issues that allow us to say we can run on many, many different types of fuels."

The fuel cell can operate on the hydrogen and carbon monoxide obtained from natural gas. The company plans to test reforming ethanol, diesel and other fuels in the near future.

When coupled with a micro turbine, the fuel cell can generate extra electrical power. "This means it can be started during a blackout or at a remote base where there's no connection" to a power grid, said Marcenaro.

Molten carbonate fuel cells, however, produce carbon dioxide exhaust. While supporters of this technology say the carbon dioxide can be harvested and recycled, this remains a controversial issue in the industry.

Ansaldo contends that its fuel cell can take readily available military fuels, such as JP-8, and convert it into power at an efficiency of 30 to 50 percent more than conventional generating equipment. The military "can increase the amount of kilowatt hours they're able to take out of source fuel," said Marcenaro. That would reduce the amount of fuel services would need to haul to bases.

For Navy ships, the fuel cell could provide silent propulsion, said company officials.

"This is an advantage that we think will give the Navy the ability to operate quietly and stealthily when they need to," said Stephen Bryen, president of Finmeccanica Inc., the U.S. branch of Italy's largest industrial corporation. Ansaldo is a Finmeccanica company.

Though U.S. Navy analysts are calling for a switch to nuclear power and other alternative fuels on ships to wean the service off its fossil fuel dependency, proponents of Ansaldo's technology say the fuel cell offers a safer alternative that could be ready within the next four years.

"The hydrogen unit is not going to provide 100 percent of the power of the ship. But it's going to provide a lot of power that you can use very efficiently for your auxiliary power, for operating the ship and for cruising," said Bryen.

Rough estimates of the 1-megawatt fuel cell stand at $2.5 million, but the price tag likely will decrease as the technology improves and moves into production, said company officials.

Ansaldo has established three prototype power plants--two in Italy and one in Spain--that run on natural gas. It is installing another plant in Turkey that will run on F-76 diesel--the fuel commonly used by NATO and U.S. Navy ships--to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology on naval fuel. The project is being co-sponsored by the Turkish and Italian navies. Marcenaro said the next step will be to put the fuel cell aboard a ship.

Ansaldo has signed an agreement with Italy's pulp and paper manufacturing industry to bring online three molten carbonate fuel cell power plants that turn factory waste byproducts into heat and electricity. The first demonstration will be a one-megawatt plant. The company plans to develop two additional plants that each would run at 4 megawatts.

By 2008, Ansaldo plans to have one of its fuel cells installed on a passenger and cargo ferry running between Turkey and Greece. The unit will provide auxiliary power by generating a half-megawatt of electricity using diesel fuel.

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RELATED ARTICLE: HYBRID electric vehicles: battlefield 'islands of power?'

SAY THE WORDS "HYBRID electric drive" and people conjure up associations with fuel-efficient vehicles. But a company working on military applications of such technologies envisions more than a vehicle with better fuel economy --it sees "islands of power" that can benefit the individual soldier by providing all the energy he or she needs in the field.

DRS Technologies has developed a hybrid-electric propulsion system for military humvee trucks that can generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 10 households.

"We recognized a long time ago that one of the benefits of these vehicles is the availability of a large amount of electric power," says Ken Winters, vice president of business development at the company's test and energy management plant in Huntsville, Ala.

A conventional humvee produces 2,000 watts of power. The hybrid-electric vehicle generates 75,000 watts of power, and it can achieve a peak of 10 megawatts of pulse power.

For comparison, a single house draws 6,000 to 10,000 watts of power, depending on the size of its air conditioning unit.

"We think it will be a major step forward for the soldier, in that we can create what we call 'islands of power,'" says Winters. A soldier will no longer have to carry batteries, for example. "He will have the power resident on the vehicle that got him to where he is,"

That capability will enable troops to perform their jobs better and enhance their survivability and effectiveness, he says.

Hybrid electric vehicles can benefit the military by reducing the logistical footprint, allowing power generators to be transported later, if at all, into a fight.

"We're not saying that we replace all generators. That's not the issue. But it allows you to change the mix. It means you can bring them out later, or you may not have to have as many, or can combine intrinsic capabilities of these hybrid vehicles with generators so that you get a more optimized overall system. That is really where the savings is, and that's the thrust we've tried to make over the years," says Winters.

Interest in hybrid drive vehicles has stalled in part because of the technology's high price tags. But Winters says efforts are ongoing to bring those costs down.

"We think the objective is to make the vehicle equivalent to what the cost of the vehicle is today, with power generation capability," he says. If you add the cost of a generator and trailer to cost of a humvee, then that total price is where a hybrid vehicle needs to be equal to or lower in cost, he says.

"We think we will be there," says Winters. The vehicle's life cycle cost for the military is very favorable, he points out.

Though there is no requirement for such a vehicle, the company has pressed onward with its work, providing prototypes for field evaluations.

During a test experiment at Fort Benning, Ga., with an air assault unit, the base camp lost its line power, recalls Winters. DRS had three vehicles running there that generated enough power to keep the experiment in progress.

"That opened a lot of people's eyes," he says.

The Army's Future Combat System will have a fleet of hybrid electric vehicles, but Winters says that technology needs to be pushed out into the force now, so that the basic power distribution capability is present on the battlefield sooner than later.

"It is a challenge to generate requirements for something like this and get the Army acquisition to accept the technology itself and put them in the field. But we think we're making good inroads," says Winters.

The technology is mature enough to be fielded, he says.

"We think it's really going to be a good thing for the soldier. I think it will save a lot of lives when we get done."--GRACE JEAN