UTC finds new tricks for old dogs

Competitors boast systems with larger capacities, but fifteen years after introducing one of the first stationary fuel cell power systems, UTC Power is still making sales.

This week, the venerable supplier, a division of United Technologies (NYSE: UTX), announced that Hilton New York, a 1,980-room hotel in downtown New York City, completed the rigging of one of its 200 KW PureCell™-branded commercial fuel cell power systems.

Nearly three times more energy efficient than the electric grid when used in combined heat and power applications, the company claims, the fuel cell system is to operate without combustion to continuously provide power and domestic hot water for hotel operations.

Fueled by natural gas, the PureCell—roughly 10 feet by 10 feet by 18 feet—combines hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air to produce electricity, heat and water.

For every year the hotel uses the fuel cell, "it will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions equivalent to the removal of 145 cars from the street and create the same environmental benefits as planting 160 acres of forest," according to UTC.

The company says it's been working for several years with Hilton on integration options for fuel cells and combined cooling, heating and power systems to reduce greenhouse emissions and utilize energy more efficiently while providing back up power to the hotel for critical systems.

Indeed, reliability and cost savings are the big reasons its customers chose UTC, said David Paul, stationary fuel cells marketing manager, to the Cleantech Group.

"Verizon in Garden City, New York not only wanted clean energy, but high redundancy built into their system. And because they installed a fuel cell system, they get a significant break in the price of their natural gas and electricity from their utility. They were expecting to save $250,000 in their first year of operation, but ended up saving almost $700,000."

And of special appeal in applications such as hotels, fuel cell-based power systems generate virtually no noise.

UTC knows fuel cells. It's been the sole fuel cell supplier to NASA for 45 years, with the roots of its research going back to the Apollo era. But that doesn't necessarily mean it has the most progressive products. On the contrary, its PureCell 200 is looking long in the tooth versus competitors.

For instance, FuelCell Energy's smallest unit is 300 KW, and the company has 1.5 MW and 3 MW configurations available. HydroGen is developing megawatt-grade fuel cell power plant configurations based on a 400 KW module.

But UTC isn't standing still. According to UTC's David Paul, an extended service life version of its PureCell 200 should be available late this year, and it's redesigning the PureCell to double its capacity.

"There's work on a higher output unit, we're calling it the model 400 internally [a 400 KW unit], and it's supposed to be out for commercial release towards the end of next year."

Nor is bigger necessarily better, said Paul, pointing out the company's cells "produce more useful heat and have a higher overall efficiency than high-temperature molten carbonate fuel cells [pursued by competitors.]" The company looked at molten carbonate cells, but chose phosphoric acid for its superior durability, reliability and lower life cycle cost, it said.

UTC Power says it has 260 of its PureCell units in the field, 50 percent of them based in the U.S., with other concentrations in Germany and Japan.

"For clean on-site power generation, the UTC Power PureCell system is the proven world leader," said UTC Power President Jan van Dokkum in a recent statement, who also noted that the company's stationary fuel cell fleet passed an aggregate 8 million hours of operation earlier this year.

To naysayers who dismiss fuel cells as has-been technology, UTC's Paul said the company's business growth speaks for itself, and said there are more inquiries and interest than ever.

"We have not reached that peak point. Fuel cells are an older technology, certainly, but the market has not fully been penetrated. Clean technology is becoming more and more important, and electricity costs continue to rise. We offer an economically appealing alternative over the life cycle of the product."

UTC Power is based in South Windsor, Conn., and also makes fuel cell products for transportation, space and defense applications, as well as combined cooling, heating and power systems for the distributed energy market.

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