NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by 

What We’ve Lear2.5 Years of Early Fuel Cell Operatio

J. Kurtz, S. Sprik, T. Ramsden, G. Saur, CAinscoughNovember 6, 2012NREL/PR‐5600‐57759
Objectives ‐ Relevance• Assess Technology

o Independent technology assessment in real world operation conditio Focused on fuel cell system and hydrogen infrastructure: performan

safety

o Leverage data processing and analysis capabilities developed under 

Learning Demonstration project

o Material handling equipment, backup power, portable power, and st

• Support Market Growth

o Analyses and results relevant to the markets’ value propositiono Reporting on technology status to fuel cell and hydrogen communiti

stakeholders like end users

Assess the technology status in real world operation

performance baselines, report on fuel cell and hy

technology, and support market growth by eval

performance relevant to the markets’ value prop
Hydrogen Secure Data Center ‐ Approach

DDPs 

Internal analysis 

completed quarterly

Bundled data (operation & 

maintenance/safety) 

delivered to NREL quarterly

Composite Data Produ

• Aggregated data acro

sites, and teams

• Publish analysis resul

proprietary data every 

Detailed Data Products (DDPs) 

• Individual data analyses• Identify individual contribution to CDPs• Only shared with partner who supplied 

data every 6 months1

1) Data exchange may happen more frequently based on data, analysis, and collaboration

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

Confidential 
Backup Power CDP Count and Category

Infra. Operation

(6)

Fue

Fuel Cell Operation

(5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13,

15)

Deployment

(1, 2, 3, 14)
Reliability: 99.5% Successful Starts

0

20406080

100120140160180200220

Starts

Starts by Month

07/09 08/09 09/09 10/09 11/09 12/09 01/10 02/10 03/10 04/10 05/10 06/10 07/10 08/10 09/10 10/10 11/10 12/10 01/11 02/11 03/11 04/11 05/11 06/11 07/11 08/11 09/11 10/11 11/11 12/11 

Calendar Month

1526 of 1533 Starts Successful (99.5%)

52% Conditioning Starts

StartsConditioning1 StartSuccessful Start

NREL cdp_bu_04

Created: Sep-13-12 6:37 PM 1) FC system condit

system checks; activ

Cost of Ownership: Backup Power

Fuel Cell

Reliability +Capital Cost ($/kW) ‐ 

Extended Run Time ++ Emissions ++ Noise + Environmental ~ Weight + Efficiency + 

Annual Fuel Cost + Annual Maintenance Cost + 

Maintenance Frequency ++ 

Refurbishment + Conditioning Tests + Operation Lifetime + 

Gathering data on:• Site Description

• System Description

• System Requirements• Capital Cost• Operating & Maintenance

Cost

• Operating Lifetime

for fuel cells, batteries, and

generators

*Tax credit $3
MHE Result Categories

Deployment & Site

Overview (1, 40)

Fuel Cell Operation

(2, 7, 8, 11, 15,

16, 17, 23, 24, 63)

Fuel Cell Durability

(32, 33, 34, 38, 39)

Fuel Cell Safety

(26, 27, 53, 56, 57)

Infra. Safety

(25, 41, 46, 51, 55)

Infra. Maintenance

(18, 19, 20, 44, 47, 52)

FC Maintenance

(12, 13, 14, 43, 54, 61)

Infra. Operation

(3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 21,

22, 35, 37, 42,62)
MHE Operation Status

*Through June 2012

Key Operation Metric CDPARRA- MHE-#

Units in Operation

(100 Class 1, 62 Class 2, 172 Class 3) 490* 01

Hours Accumulated 1,248,384 hrs* 11

25% of FC Systems > 5,260 hrs* 02

FC Systems Average 

> 6 hours Daily 66%* 24

Hydrogen Dispensed 141,500 kg* 04

Hydrogen Fills 197,991* 03

Average Fill Amount 0.6 kg/fill* 10

Average Fill Time 2.3 min/fill* 06

Average Op Time 

between Fill 4.7 hrs* 08

The majori

delivered li

of the eigh

sites. Four than one c

operation.
Annualized Total Cost of Ownership per Unit Identifies Key C

Advantages are Dependent on Deployment Size

CDP Ref #: 58

Fuel

Infra.

Hardware

Warehouse

Space

Fueling

Labor

Maint.

Results assume replacements as needed and do not reflect technology generation improveme

improvements such as constant power, emissions, and cold environment. FC costs include curr

or 30% of purchase price. Data source: ARRA and DLA project partner questionnaire and fuel c
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 

0

100020003000400050006000700080009000

10000110001200013000140001500016000

Comparison of Operation Hours and Projected Hours to 10% Voltage Degradation

Projected Hours1,2,4

Operation Hours

projected hrs = operation h

Durability ‐ Fuel Cell Voltage Degradation

Average Projecte

Hours = 5,500

The average projected hours to 10% voltage degradation is 5,500 hours having a projection > 10,500 hours.
Safety

6%

6%

By Number 

Total Inci

14%

14%

14%

14%

14%29%

By Number of Incidents

Total Incidents = 7

ControlElectronics

OperatorProtocol

FuelSystem

Fittings &Piping

FC Stack

Electrical

D

Co

Valves

MHE

Majority of safety reports (217) are minor

hydrogen leaks (4,480 stack hours per

report)

Infrast

Majority of safety rep

leaks primarily f

compressor and 

dispensed 
Reliability ‐ Fuel Cell System

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 400

0

10203040

Unit MTBF1 (Hours)

Percent of Units

Unit MTBF by Operating Hours

17%

17%

18%

20%

27%

19%

15%

16% 16%

19%

15%

26%

28%

26%

19% 

13%13%

ACEEFSST

NREL cdp_mhe_30

Created: Mar-26-12 4:17 PM

1Mean Time Between Failure

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3

Equipment Categories for Units with MTBF<=250 hours.2

2 Categories representing <10% of the total are not shown
Reliability ‐ Infrastructure

ComFeed

Dispenser

Infrastructure consistently delivering250 and 350 bar fills even though themajority of the sites have a MTBF of

25 days or less.
Capabilities ‐ Infrastructure

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 

02468

1012

Number of Fuelings in an Hour

Frequency [% of total]

Number of Fuelings Per Hour - ARRA

NREL cdparra_mhe_68

Created: Sep-20-12 4:10 PM

Average: 7.4 per houMedian: 5.0 per hourMax: 39.0 per hour
<0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 

05

1015202530

Simultaneous Fills

Back-to-Back Fills

36 % of fills are within 0-5 minutes of each other23 % of fills have more than 20 minutes between t193171 Total Fills

Time Between Fuelings* [min]

# of Fuelings [% of total]

Histogram of Time Between Fuelings

AIn

200 225 250 275 300 325 350 375 400 

012345x 104 Final Pressures for Fills with <5 Minutes in Between

# of Fuelings

Final Pressure [bar]

NREL cdparra_mhe_65

Created: Oct-05-12 12:18 PM *Time is from end of fill to start of next fill.

Capabilities ‐ Infrastructure
Technical Summary – What We’ve Learned

Fuel Cell Backup Power• Operating reliability in 15 states with

99.5% successful starts.

• Maximum continuous run time of 29

hours due to an unplanned grid

outage.

Fuel Cell Material Handling Equipment

• Operating with an average availability

of ~98% at 8 end‐user facilities.

• Most systems operate at least 6 hours

a day.

• Cost of ownership comparison

between fuel cell and battery MHE

indicate significant cost savings cost

for refueling labor and infrastructure

space but much greater cost for

hydrogen infrastructure and fuel.

Aggregate

performan

years in 

Performan

need for p

the tec

Data ana

systems op

the key pe

th
http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_fc_m

j