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power station and produce affordable, efficient, environmentally-friendly
electricity from coal. The program leverages advances in solid oxide fuel
cell (SOFC) technology under the SECA program.
The research is focused on future energy needs with near-zero emis-
sions in coal-fueled power station applications. Key system goals in-
clude:
• A 50 percent or greater overall efficiency in converting the energy in
coal to electrical power.
• The capture of 90 percent or more of the carbon in the coal fuel as
CO
2
.
• A cost of $400 per kilowatt, excluding the coal gasification and CO
2
separation systems.
The projects are being conducted by three research teams led by
General Electric Hybrid Power Generations Systems (GE HPGS), Siemens
Power Generation and FuelCell Energy. The projects concentrate on fuel
cell technologies that can support power generation systems larger than
100 megawatts. GE HPGS is a partner with GE Energy, GE Global Re-
search, PNNL and the University of South Carolina in developing an in-
tegrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) system. It would merge GE's SECA-
based planar SOFCs and gas turbines with coal gasification technologies.
The system design will use a SOFC/gas turbine hybrid as the main power
generation unit.
Siemens Power Generation is a partner with ConocoPhillips and Air
Products and Chemicals, Inc., (APCI) to develop large-scale fuel cell sys-
tems based upon their gas turbine and SECA SOFC technologies. The de-
sign will use an ion transport membrane (ITM) oxygen air separation unit
(ASU) from APCI with improved system efficiency.
FuelCell Energy is a partner with Versa Power Systems, Nexant, and
Gas Technology Institute to develop more affordable fuel-cell-based tech-
nology that uses synthesis gas from a coal gasifier. The key objectives in-
clude the development of fuel cell technologies, fabrication processes, and
manufacturing capabilities for solid oxide fuel cell stacks for multi-mega-
watt power plants.
The High Temperature Electrochemistry Center (HiTEC) Advanced
Research Program provides research for supporting SECA, fuel cell coal
based systems, and FutureGen. HiTEC is located at the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory (PNNL) with support groups at Montana State Uni-
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