At the heart of this 250 kilowatt
power plant is the largest PEM fuel cell ever manufactured. The
fuel cell uses electrodes and platinum catalysts manufactured
by Johnson Matthey in the UK and developed under a joint R&D
collaboration between Johnson Matthey and Ballard Power
Systems. Commenting on this important
development Jack Frost, Johnson Matthey's Fuel Cell Business
Manager said:
"Ballard are to be congratulated
on this world leading achievement. To-date exciting developments
in PEM fuel cell technology have been mainly in transport applications,
where Ballard Power Systems has pioneered fuel cell development
for buses and cars. Ballard has an important joint-venture with
Daimler-Benz which plans to commercialise fuel cell engine systems
for use in vehicles early in the next century. The Ballard Generation
Systems development is very exciting because in larger, stationary
power plants the high operating efficiency of the fuel cell can
compensate for its initially higher capital cost, allowing earlier
commercialisation of this important, environmentally friendly
technology. Ballard are confident that capital costs will eventually
be fully competitive with current methods of power generation."
"Manufacturing high performance
fuel cell electrodes of the size required for this application
required a major development effort by Johnson Matthey and Ballard
Power Systems to perfect advanced catalysts and automated electrode
production processes".
"The Ballard Generation Systems
natural gas fuelled PEM fuel cell technology is particularly
suited to Combined Heat & Power (CHP) applications. This is important
in the UK where deregulation of energy markets has enabled CHP
to become an established part of the power generation mix. By
being more energy efficient, CHP helps reduce carbon dioxide
emissions and in recognition of this the UK Government has targets
to install 5,000 MW of CHP capacity by 2000 and 10,000 MW by
2010. The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, has recently
been promoting the government's strong commitment to CHP and
encouraging its use by British industry. Johnson Matthey has
a long standing commitment to fuel cell technology and we believe
that fuel cells can play an important role in helping the Government's
targets to be met".
