Future energy systems should include distributed power generation with combined heat and power. A study is conducted to evaluate the economic competitiveness of using a high temperature fuel cell with combined heat and power as a distributed power generation system against the conventional grid supplied power system at a sewage treatment facility. This report evaluates the economic benefits of using natural gas or biogas from the sewage treatment plant at the Flint-Biogas Complex to power a 1.4MW direct fuel cell which operates at a temperature of 400 o C. The waste recovery heat will be used for heating the sludge and the facility. Bottoming cycle options are proposed. The waste heat will be used to warm the sludge, heat up the reactants and provide warm water throughout the facility. This approach eliminates or reduces additional energy cost. The most important engineering and economic indicators would be used for evaluating the CHP system against the conventional furnace and power from the grid.

The concept of using a distributed power generation and a combined heat and power principle-CHP in public buildings, commercial facilities is widely gaining public acceptance as a result of reduced energy cost, reliable power supply and environmental and health issues. By using the exhaust heat from a high temperature fuel cell at 400 o C for cogeneration, space heating, to provide warm water for facility use-(swimming pool and sporting locker room) and cooling in chillers at no additional cost, we reduce energy cost and preserve the environment. By bottoming cycle, the efficiency of the entire system is increased. A study is conducted to compare the economic impact of using the CHP system against the conventional heating system using furnaces.

An experimental investigation is conducted on a high temperature, single cell PEM with three different concentrations of CO with the intent of establishing acceptable carbon monoxide content from reformates. Hydrogen of 99.997% purity is used as a baseline fuel while 2 and 5 % CO contents are tested at 150 o C to 190 o C. Results from these tests reveal significant and unacceptable reduction of cell performance with temperature below 150 o C while the performance characteristic of the tested blends tends to converge at higher temperatures around 190 o C and above. Prior work characterized the operation of the system over a sparse range of CO operational envelope. The current work will fill the gap to generate an operational envelope of CO percentage good for high temperature PEM fuel cell operation.