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Data Analysis for ARRA Early Fuel Cell 

Market Demonstrations

Presented at the NHA 

2010 Hydrogen 

Conference and Expo

Long Beach, 

California

ID#4771

Jennifer Kurtz, Keith Wipke, 

Sam Sprik, & Todd Ramsden

May 5th, 2010

NREL/PR-560-48204
National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Contents

Overview of ARRA Fuel Cell Project

NREL Data Analysis Objectives

Deployment CDPs

Planned Analyses

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 

(ARRA) Fuel Cell Early Market Project

COMPANY AWARD APPLICATION

Delphi Automotive $2.4 M Auxiliary Power

FedEx Freight East $1.3 M Specialty Vehicle

GENCO $6.1 M Specialty Vehicle

Jadoo Power $2.2 M Backup Power

MTI MicroFuel Cells $3.0 M Portable

Nuvera Fuel Cells $1.1 M Specialty Vehicle

Plug Power, Inc. (1) $3.4 M CHP

Plug Power, Inc. (2) $2.7 M Backup Power

Univ. of N. Florida $2.5 M Portable

ReliOn Inc. $8.5 M Backup Power

Sprint Comm. $7.3 M Backup Power

Sysco of Houston $1.2 M Specialty Vehicle

Project Objective

Deploy ~1,000 fuel cells to 

accelerate the 

commercialization and 

deployment of fuel cells 

and fuel cell manufacturing, 

installation, maintenance, 

and support services

12 awards with >$40 million 

ARRA & ~$53 million cost share

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Composite Data Products (CDPs) 

•Aggregated data across multiple 

systems, sites, and teams

• Publish analysis results without 

revealing proprietary data every 6 

months4

Internal analysis 

completed quarterly

Bundled data1 delivered to 

NREL quarterly

ARRA Hydrogen Fuel Cell & Infrastructure 

Data

Project Team / Site

Operational Data1

NREL HSDC2

Data Processing & 

Analysis

Results

Data 

Products

1) Operation, Maintenance, and Safety data templates are created for each different 

application/report and are common to all partners in an application.

2) Hydrogen Secure Data Center

3) Data exchange may happen more frequently based on data, analysis, & collaboration

4) Results published via NREL Tech Val website, conferences, and reports

Detailed Data Products (DDPs) 

•Individual data analyses

• Identify individual contribution to 

CDPs

• Only shared with partner who 

supplied data every 6 months3

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

NREL Data Analysis Objectives – ARRA 

Demonstrations

•Independent technology assessment; focused on fuel cell system and 

hydrogen infrastructure: performance, operation, and safety.

•Leverage data processing and analysis capabilities developed from the fuel 

cell vehicle Learning Demonstration project and DoD Forklift Demo. 

•Establish a baseline of real-world fuel cell operation and maintenance data 

and identify technical/market barriers.

•Support market growth through analyses relevant to the value 

proposition and reporting on technology status to fuel cell and hydrogen 

communities and stakeholders

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Delivered Fuel Cell Units & Deployment Sites

2009 Q4 2010 Q1 0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Delivered Quantity

Calendar Quarter

DOE ARRA1

 Funded Early Fuel Cell Markets: Delivered Units

APU

Backup Power

Forklift

Stationary

Created: Apr-14-10 4:16 PM 1) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

ARRA Forklift Site

ARRA Backup Site

ARRA Stationary Site

ARRA APU

Created: Apr-14-10 4:36 PM

Some site locations TBD

171

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Fuel Cell Units in Operation

Current and Projected Quantities

2009 Q4 2010 Q1 2010 Q2 2010 Q3 2010 Q4 2011 Q1 2011 Q2 2011 Q3 2011 Q4 0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Projected Operation Quantities

In Operation Quantity

Calendar Quarter

DOE ARRA1

 Funded Early Fuel Cell Markets: Units in Operation

APU

Backup Power

Forklift

Stationary

Created: Apr-14-10 4:16 PM 1) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

1000

136

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Government Funded Early Fuel Cell Market 

Deployment Sites (DOE ARRA, DOE IAA, DoD)

Some site locations TBD

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Efficiency Range

Efficiency [%]

Not Real Data

NREL cdpFLXX

Created: Apr-27-10 11:21 AM

Planned Analyses Examples - Forklifts

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

kWhr/kg By Month

kWhr/kg

Not Real Data

NREL cdpFLXX

Created: Apr-27-10 11:21 AM

cdpFL07

Tank Pressures before Refueling

15%

E F

Created: Nov-06-09 7:35 AM

Total refuelings1 = 7931

1. Some refueling events not recorded/detected due to data noise or incompleteness.

2. The outer arc is set at 25% total refuelings.

3. Full = 5000 psi

Median Tank Level (At Fill) = 35%

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Planned Analyses Examples - Stationary

Reliability Availability 60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

FC Backup: Reliability & Availability

%

25th & 75th %

median

outlier

Created: Jul-30-09 10:18 AM

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Net System Power [%]

Efficiency [%]

Fuel Cell System1 Efficiency2

 Eff. at 25% Pwr Eff. at 100% Pwr

 ------------------- -------------------

Gen1 51 - 58% 30 - 54%

Gen2 53 - 59% 42 - 53%

DOE Target at 25% Power

DOE Target at 100% Power

Gen 1 Efficiency Range

Gen 2 Efficiency Range

NREL CDP08

Created: Sep-02-09 11:27 AM

1

 Gross stack power minus fuel cell system auxiliaries, per DRAFT SAE J2615. Excludes power electronics and electric drive.

2

 Ratio of DC output energy to the lower heating value of the input fuel (hydrogen). 

3

 Individual test data linearly interpolated at 5,10,15,25,50,75,and 100% of max net power. Values at high power linearly extrapolated 

 due to steady state dynamometer cooling limitations.

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Non-Event

Near Miss

Incident

Number of Reports

Severity

Primary Factors of Infrastructure Safety Reports

Through 2009 Q2

Calibration/Settings/ Software Controls

Design Flaw

Electrical Power to Site

Environment (Weather, Power Disruption, Other)

False Alarm

Inadequate Training, Protocol, SOP

Inadequate/ Non-working Equipment

Maintenance Required

Mischief, Vandalism, Sabotage

New Equipment Materials

Not Yet Determined

Operator/Personnel Error

System Manually Shutdown

Created: Sep-01-09 8:38 AM

An INCIDENT is an event that results in:

 - a lost time accident and/or injury to personnel

 - damage/unplanned downtime for project equipment, facilities or property

 - impact to the public or environment

 - any hydrogen release that unintentionally ignites or is sufficient to sustain a flame if ignited

 - release of any volatile, hydrogen containing compound (other than the hydrocarbons used as common fuels)

A NEAR-MISS is:

 - an event that under slightly different circumstances could have become an incident

 - unplanned H2 release insufficient to sustain a flame

Planned Analysis Activities – Leverage 

Experience and Analysis from FCV

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 0

500

1000

1500

Avg Fuel Rate (kg/min)

Number of Fueling Events

Histogram of Fueling Rates

All Light Duty Through 2009Q2

5 minute fill of

5 kg at 350 bar

3 minute fill of

5 kg at 350 bar

21854 Events

Average = 0.78 kg/min

24% >1 kg/min

2006 MYPP Tech Val Milestone

2012 MYPP Tech Val Milestone

Created: Aug-14-09 10:09 AM

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 10001100120013001400150016001700180019002000

Stack Op Hour Segments(2)

% Power(1)

Max Fuel Cell Power Loss vs Op Hours: Gen1

1) Normalized by fleet median value at 200 hours.

2) Each segment point is median FC power (+-50 hrs).

 Box not drawn if fewer than 3 points in segment.

Gen1 Data Range

25th & 75th Percentiles

Group Median

Outlier

NREL CDP69

Created: Mar-23-10 10:39 AM

Application specific analysis

Analysis based on FCV: 

FCV Learning Demo has

80 Data Results

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Data Results Reported to Multiple Stakeholders

Likely Analysis Topics

Durability

Efficiency

Power, Voltage, Energy

Safety

Reliability

Maintenance

Cost

Market Application Comparisons

Data 

Results

Government

Example Results: 

Market Impact 

Environmental 

Impact Developer

Example Result: 

Stack Durability

End User

Example Result: 

Value Proposition

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Planned Analysis – FC Application & 

Competing Technology Comparisons

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Summary

ARRA project expected to deploy ~ 1,000 fuel cell units.

Diverse group of project partners that includes fuel cell 

developers, hydrogen producers, and end users with sites 

across the United States.

Forklift sites are first to begin operation

First round of technical results expected later this year

Technical results reported to end users (e.g. Value 

Proposition), developer (e.g. Stack Durability), and 

government (e.g. Market Impact)

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Contact Information & Website

http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_fc_market_demo.html

Jennifer Kurtz

jennifer.kurtz nrel.gov

303-275-4061

@

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