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TechWaTch Lessons from the Hurricane By Walter Salm
where absolutely vital emergency generators came up short, forcing massive evacuation of patients from four hospitals to hospitals that had generators that worked. Today’s hos- pitals cannot operate without elec- tricity; too much of our medical tech- nology depends on electronics and the power to run them. To be sure, many of the systems
H
in a patient’s room have battery pow- er, but the charge will usually last for only a few hours before power is needed to run and recharge these de- vices. Power is also needed for light- ing and heating (or air conditioning), to run the elevators, advanced diag- nostics, and the operating rooms. These are not luxuries; they are mandatory. There is no excuse for balky and
non-operating Diesel emergency gen- erators — certainly not in a hospital situation. To further compound this travesty, there are perfectly good commercial fuel cell generating sys- tems that could be installed instead of the Diesel generators — power sources that would run continuously, emergency or not, providing steady, reliable and inexpensive electric
urricane Sandy made fools out of some hospital adminis- trators in New York City,
power, which would in fact, reduce the hospital’s cost for energy.
400 Kilowatt Fuel Cell St. Helena Hospital in Napa Val-
ley, Calif., has been drawing power from its state-of-the art 400 kilowatt fuel cell system from UTC Power, a United Technologies Corp. company (NYSE:UTX) for nearly two years. The PureCell® Model 400 System meets 63 percent of the hospital’s electricity needs and its byproduct thermal energy is being used for hot water and space heating for three of the hospital’s buildings. The fuel cell system is a combined heat and cooling system that has helped the hospital reduce its energy costs, increase its operational reliability and contribute to a cleaner environment. Fuel cells which produce elec-
tricity, heat and water through an electrochemical process are one of the cleanest, quietest, most energy-effi- cient power-generating technologies available today. They also meet the strictest U.S. emission standards. With its proven phosphoric acid-based fuel cell technology, the PureCell Model 400 System has an industry best 10-year stack life and a 20-year product life, with an overall system ef- ficiency of up to 90 percent — nearly
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three times that of typical central generation plants. In addition, the Model 400 is designed to operate in water-balance — no consumption or discharge of water in normal opera- tions — saving millions of gallons of water when compared to central gen- eration and other fuel cell technolo- gies. These lifetime figures are based on continuous operation 24/7, 365 days per year — not just during emer- gencies. A fuel cell is not meant to stand idly by, so it is running and sup- plying power, and will not balk during an emergency the way that Diesel generators do so frequently.
come and gone, it’s possible to evalu- ate the performance of existing fuel cell power systems operating in the Bahamas. Canadian company Bal- lard Power says that the superstorm was unable to beat the power of its fuel cell products. Before the storm tore its way up the U.S. East Coast, it hit the Bahamas, where mobile telephone networks are powered by the Ballard Power ElectraGen™ fuel cell systems. Though the country saw exten-
sive damage from Hurricane Sandy, the storm was unable cut off the pow- er being provided by the hydrogen fu-
Non-starting or poorly planned emergency generators in four New York hospitals caused
havoc and patient evacuation. Stationary fuel cell power plants could have solved the problem. Smaller stationary fuel cell plants braved the hurricane to keep cell phone infrastructure on line in the Bahamas.
The St. Helena facilities team
has programmed the energy manage- ment system computers to rely on the fuel cell as the primary source of heat and power, while keeping boil- ers and generators online for some low-level energy needs (the 37 per- cent of total energy requirements not supplied by the fuel cell) and emer- gency backup. The fuel cell system is described as “a good fit” because the hospital needs reliable power and thermal energy around the clock. By generating most of its power
on site with a fuel cell, St. Helena Hospital is able to reduce the burden on the local power grid and its im- pact on the environment. The fuel cell power plant is preventing the re- lease of more than 530 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year — the equiv- alent of planting more than 125 acres of trees. The reductions in ni- trogen oxide emissions compared to a conventional power plant are equal to the environmental benefit of re- moving 115 cars from the road, and more than 500,000 gallons of water will be saved. Purchase of the hospital’s fuel
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cell was partially funded by a grant from the California Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP). The Cali- fornia SGIP provides financial incen- tives for the installation of new, clean, and energy-efficient on-site distributed generation. The fuel cell was also funded by an anonymous donor who made a generous contri- bution to this project through the Napa Valley Community Founda- tion. The power costs for the hospital are expected to drop as much as $180,000 annually, helping to pay down the equipment investment in as little as three years. The fuel cell power plant runs on methane, piped in from the local natural gas distri- bution line. Natural gas is a very clean fuel that the U.S. has available in enormous quantities.
Hurricane Proof Fuel Cells Now that Hurricane Sandy has
el cells, a major victory according to Ballard Power. The ElectraGen-ME systems incorporate a fuel reformer to extract hydrogen from Hy- droPlus™, a mixture of methanol and water available from accredited suppliers around the world. The hy- drogen is then used as feedstock for the fuel cells. Methanol is a readily available fuel, making the fuel cell a practical solution for backup power needs even in remote locations.
Gaining Momentum Ballard’s fuel cells have become
a popular energy solution in the telecommunications industry, espe- cially in countries developing an ex- tensive mobile network. Cell towers can sprout wherever they are need- ed, regardless of the availability of infrastructure utilities (electric pow- er or natural gas lines). As the number of mobile devices
like smart phones and tablets esca- lates, there is an increasing need to modernize existing telecommunica- tions infrastructure, and in many places build totally new infrastruc- ture. As companies begin moderniz- ing this infrastructure, they require power systems that will ensure that consumers still have access to mobile services. Fuel cells have proven to be the most popular option in this re- gard because of their ability to pro- duce large amounts of uninterrupted electric power. Ballard Power notes that its fu-
el cells operated exactly as expected during the three days that the Ba- hamas were battered by Hurricane Sandy. The energy systems were able to keep the country’s telecom- munications network powered and operational throughout the storm, ensuring that communications could continue as needed. This was consid- ered a major boon for the recovery ef- fort during and after the storm be- cause communications were working
just the way they should. Contact: Web:
www.ballard.com
or
www.utcpower.com r
December, 2012
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