Residential fuel cell systems

Fuel cells offer an environmentally sound, distributed energy source for individual buildings.Many governments believe that security and sustainability of energy supply can be improvedwith this technology. Therefore large public support programmes are under way to facilitatethe commercialization of residential fuel cell systems. VTT is actively participating in thisdevelopment work in a number of projects.Modelling and simulation tools have been developed to provide the means for studying theinteraction between fuel cell system and a building.VTT initiated in 2004 development of a PEM fuel cell based power stack and developed itscontrol system and operating strategies.VTT supports local industry in developing technologies for SOFC systems, e.g. fuelprocessing for natural gas and diesel. The most important accomplishment has been thedevelopment of a 5 kW SOFC CHP laboratory demonstration plant fuelled by natural gas.The plant was grid connected and successfully operated for 6500 hours.