Fuel cell focus |


Honda drives towards the hydrogen economy


Honda reports that it has begun operation of a demonstration stationary fuel cell power plant – intended to serve as ‘proof of concept’ for future commercialisation – on its corporate campus in Torrance, CA, USA, “marking the company’s first step toward future commercialisation of zero-emission backup power generation.” Honda says “the initiative leverages [its] hydrogen fuel cell technology expertise and contributes to the company’s global goal to achieve carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities by 2050.”


The new fuel cell installation is supplying “clean and quiet emergency backup power” to the Torrance data centre, says Honda, which plans to roll out next-generation stationary fuel cell technology to its manufacturing facilities and datacentres worldwide.


The 500 kW demonstration stationary fuel cell unit at Torrance reuses the fuel cell systems of previously leased Honda Clarity fuel cell vehicles. It is made up of 250 kW modules, each consisting of four fuel cells.


The demo installation is designed to be flexible, enabling the layout of the fuel cell units


Honda’s vision of the hydrogen economy


to be altered as required and to accommodate cubic, L-shaped, Z-shaped, and other FC packaging configurations.


Future stationary fuel cell units intended to be offered commercially by Honda will use the company’s “next-generation” FC system, which has been jointly developed with General Motors and is also set to power an all-new fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) based on the Honda CR-V, “coming in 2024.”


Over the last few years, the power


requirements of data centres have been growing rapidly due to the expansion of cloud computing and big data utilisation, Honda notes, and the need for backup power sources has been increasing, driven by the imperatives of business continuity planning.


“We believe there’s great promise in hydrogen fuel cells for backup power and offsetting potential peak power events,” said Koji Moriyama, project lead of the stationary fuel cell and principal engineer with American Honda R&D business unit. “By installing and utilising our core technology, the fuel cell system, in various applications such as stationary power generation,


Above: Honda fuel cell at Torrance, CA, USA


Honda aims to stimulate hydrogen usage and provide clean energy for potential commercial customers.”


Honda says it is taking a proactive approach to increase the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier and is striving to expand its hydrogen business, pointing out that it has been developing hydrogen technologies and fuel cell vehicles for more than 30 years.


Fuel cells for India


SFC Energy AG, supplier of hydrogen and methanol fuel cells for stationary and mobile hybrid power solutions, and its India-based strategic partner, FC TecNrgy Pvt Ltd (FCTec), have secured a major order from the Indian Ministry of Defence for portable fuel cell systems. The contract includes the supply of 450 portable methanol fuel cell systems over a period of one year for an initial contract value of more than EUR 16 million and the servicing and maintenance of the systems over a period of five years.


Assembly will take place at SFC’s Indian subsidiary at a site in Gurgaon, Haryana. The order is the largest fuel cell contract from the Indian defence forces awarded to date. The portable fuel cell systems are used by infantry and special forces units for parallel charging of multiple batteries and for powering sensors, surveillance and communication systems, among other applications. The Indian government is increasingly striving to replace fossil-fuel-based systems such as diesel generators with clean energy sources.


36 | April 2023| www.modernpowersystems.com


In the context of the Indian government’s “Make in India” initiative in the field of clean energy and CO2 reduction, an agreement on strategic co-operation with mutual equity participation of local companies and production of hydrogen and methanol fuel cells in India was signed between SFC Energy and FCTec on the sidelines of the summit meeting between German chancellor Olaf Scholz and prime minister Shree Narendra Modi and the respective government and business delegations in New Delhi on 25 February 2023.


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