Jen Kurtz, Todd 

Ramsden, Keith Wipke, 

Sam Sprik

NREL/PR-560-46673

Recovery Projects 

Kick-Off Meeting

New Cumberland, PA

August 21, 2009

Data Collection & Analysis for ARRA 

Fuel Cell Projects

NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Overview

• Objectives

• Data Flow

• Data Collection 

– Reporting, templates, considerations 

• Composite Data Products (CDPs)

• Questions

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Data Analysis Objectives

• Independent assessment of technology, focused on fuel cell system 

and hydrogen infrastructure: performance, operation, and safety.

• Leverage data processing and analysis capabilities 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 of fuel cell technologies by reporting on 

technology features relevant to the business case

• Report on technology to fuel cell and hydrogen communities and 

stakeholders

• Individual data analyses for 

each FC system and site

• Identify individual 

contribution to CDPs

• Only shared with partner 

who supplied data

Detailed 

Data 

Products 

(DDPs)

• Aggregated data across 

multiple systems, sites, 

and teams

• Publish analysis results 

without revealing 

proprietary data

Composite 

Data 

Products 

(CDPs)

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Data Flow

National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

CDPs every 6 

months**

DDPs every 6 months*; 

used for CDP review

Internal analysis 

completed quarterly

Bundled data delivered 

to NREL quarterly

CDPs

Project Team

Partner/Site

Operation Data

NREL HSDC

Data Processing & Analysis

Results

Data Products

*Data exchange may happen more frequently based on 

data, analysis, & collaboration

**Via conferences, reports, and NREL Tech Val Website

Evaluating secure data transfer options 

such as mail and secure FTP

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Data Reporting & Collection

• Site Summary Report

– Overview (Reported once*)

– Operation Log (Monthly)

– Maintenance Log (Monthly)

• Site Cost Report

– Installation Cost (Reported Once*)

– Operation Cost (Monthly)

• Site Hydrogen Report

– Hydrogen Production Data** (Monthly

– Usage (Monthly)

• Operation Data

– Vehicle, system, or facility operations (Monthly)

– On-board data acquisition for any operation (CSV files preferred)

*Updates needed for any significant changes

**Only for on-site production

•All data bundled and delivered to 

NREL HSDC quarterly.

•Data details are dependent on 

the application.

•Data templates are created for 

each different application & report.

•Data templates are common to all 

partners in an application.

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Example of CDPs

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

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

# Deployed

Forklift Deployment (Example)

DOE Qty

DoD Qty

Created: Jul-30-09 10:36 AM

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

0-2 2-4 4-6 6-8 >8 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Hours

Frequency [%]

Operation Hours between Fills (Example)

Created: Jul-30-09 12:35 PM

Other Likely CDPs

Operation Hours & Durability

Efficiency

H2 Fill Rate, Frequency, & Production

Power, Voltage, Energy

Safety

Maintenance

Cost (install, op, life)

Market Application Comparisons

6
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

1100

Avg Fuel Rate (kg/min)

Number of Fueling Events

Histogram of Fueling Rates

All Light Duty Through 2008Q4

5 minute fill of

5 kg at 350 bar

3 minute fill of

5 kg at 350 bar

16623 Events

Average = 0.78 kg/min

24% >1 kg/min

2006 MYPP Tech Val Milestone

2012 MYPP Tech Val Milestone

Created: Feb-25-09 5:24 PM

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

All OEMs

Efficiency (%) 

Fuel Cell System1

 Efficiency2 at ~25% Net Power.

DOE Target

Created: Aug-29-06 4:09 PM

1

 Gross stack power minus fuel cell system auxiliaries, per DRAFT SAEJ2615.

2

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

Excludes power electronics and electric drive.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

Comparable Fuel Cell Vehicle CDPs

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 -30

-20

-10

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1.1 % trips below 0 o

C

Max Op = 140.0 o

F

Min Op = -2.2 o

F

29.6 % trips above 28 o

C

Trip Frequency [%]

Temperature [oC]

Average Ambient Trip Temperature: DOE Fleet

Created: Feb-26-09 5:56 PM

0 50 100 150 200 250

Non-Event

Near Miss

Incident

Number of Reports

Severity

Primary Factors of Infrastructure Safety Reports

Through 2008 Q4

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: Feb-27-09 8:16 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

Tank Levels: DOE Fleet

14%

E F

Created: Feb-20-09 12:37 PM

Total refuelings1

 = 20639

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

Median Tank Level (At Fill) = 40%

2. The outer arc is set at 20% total refuelings.

3. If tank level at fill was not available, a complete fill up was assumed.

5% 4%

34%

57%

Fuel Cell Vehicle Events (9357)

22%

5%

49%

24%

Fuel Cell Vehicle Labor (10216 hours)

Vehicle (non-powertrain)

Fuel Cell System

Powertrain

Battery

3% 11%

11%

14%

26%

36%

Fuel Cell System Events (3175)

< 1%

31%

24%

12%

13%

20%

Fuel Cell System Labor (5035 hours)

Thermal Management

Air System

Controls, Electronics, Sensors

Fuel System

Fuel Cell Stack

Other

Created: Mar-09-09 3:16 PM

Fuel Cell Vehicle Maintenance Events and Labor Hours

All published results can be found at: http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_tech_validation.html

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory Innovation for Our Energy Future

What Others Are Saying About NREL’s FC Analysis

Source: 2008 Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Report, http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/pdfs/amr_peer_evaluation_report_2008.pdf 

“the most important and critical element 

of the Technology Validation Subprogram”

“vital to determining whether the Program's hydrogen 

and fuel cell activities are on course to achieve 

established research and development targets” “Public results have been widely and 

proactively disseminated through 

numerous conferences, reports and

publications”

“comprehensive and needed summary of 

hydrogen fuel cell vehicle testing”

“Outstanding collaborative interactions”

“have earned the complete confidence of 

industry during the course of this project”

“Close collaboration with industry partners 

providing data is a primary contributor to 

project success”

“NREL team has gained the highest 

credibility with both industry and DOE”

Communication of Results

Partner Collaboration and Confidence

Importance and Relevance

“Excellent approach to maximize useful 

information from a massive amount of data”

“superb system for collection, storage, securing, 

analyzing, and reporting on sensitive performance 

and other data submitted by industry”

“strong, experienced, flexible team, which is 

committed to achievement of challenging project

and hydrogen program objectives”

“Strong analysis methodology”

Approach and Methodology

Jennifer Kurtz: jennifer.kurtz@nrel.gov 303-275-4061

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