Fuji Electric has proceeded with fuel cell development on its own technology for many years. Elementary technology development that is the base of commercialization has also got excellent results though our efforts in developing components such as cells, reformers, inverters, and others. Production on a commercial basis is planned to aim at fuel cells for on-site use, dispersed use, and vehicle use; in all cases, we are striving for standardization to put them on the market.

Outlook for the commercialization of phosphoric acid fuel cells, a long-pending problem, has been made possible deue to progress in technical development and support by governmental organization and related indusries. Fuji Electric has built a plant for fuel cell mass production to make preparations for commercialization. Our plan is to commercialize on-site fuel cells in cooperation with three gas companies first and then fuel cells for dispersed use and vehicle use. To meet commercialization expected in several years, priority has been shifted from elementary technology development to improvement in the reliability and cost of power units.

Fuji Electric started developing commercial 50-kW and 100-kW on-site phosphoric acid fuel cell power units using natural gas and LPG as fuel in cooperation with three major gas companies: Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, and Toho Gas Cos., Ltd. in May, 1989. According to the plan, a trial unit will be made including newly developed results and put to performance and field tests for operation evaluation, trial mass-produced units will be put to monitor tests in 1991 and 1992, and commercial units will be sold from 1993. This paper introduces the on-site fuel cell power units, mainly 50-kW units.

To put on-site fuel cell power plats to practical use, it is essential to reduce the size, weight, and cost of fuel cell stacks that are the largest, heaviest, and costliest parts. Improvement in reliability and maintainability is also important. Fuji Electric has achieved various developments, such as reduction of the electrode area and the number of cells by high electrode output density, development of electrode substrates and separators for it, reduction of the size and weight of structural parts, and improvements in reliability. This paper describes the current state of the developments.

This paper describes the development of fuel processors for on-site fuel cell power units, especially using town gas as fuel.
The development of the first-generation reformers were started in 1987 and they are now in operation in 50-kW units satisfactorily.
Next, Fuji Electric has developed second-generation reformers of low cost since 1988, and succeeded in making them very compact but equivalent in performance compared with the first generation units.

On-site fuel cell power units are required to be small, light, and low in noise to be installed in buildings, hospitals, restaurants, and others.
Fuji Electric has recently developed second-generation 50-kW inverter with high-speed semiconductor devices for on-site use. Mush reduction in size, weight, and noise has been achieved when compared with the first-generation units.

Regarding the control system of the on-site fuel cell power unit, this paper describes the basic operation system of the unit, the feature of its control system, and the contents of control for start, operation, and stop.
The control of the unit is similar to that of a chemical plant; however, it is characterized by the high speed of gas flow change. The unit receives power for auxiliaries from outside when it starts and stops; the paper gives a description of power change-over at the start of generation and the basic sequence of generated power supply to outside.

Phosphoric acid fuel cells expected to be soon made practicable are under active research and development. Its basic technology was completed with the satisfactory trial manufacture and demonstration of the 1 MW power plant entrusted by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization since 1981. Fuji Electric has studied larger capacity plants for practical use on the basis of these results. This paper picks up a dispersed 5MW fuel cell power plant and outlines of its basic concept, specifications, features of main components, and layout.

To develop a practicable dispersed utility fuel cell power generating plants, the fuel cell stack should be improved in cost, size, service life, and maintenance. Fuji Electric has strived to develop a large size fuel cell stack for this purpose; this paper introduces the target specifications of the stack and the details of main developments.

Various types of reformers have been developed in the world. This paper introduces the discussion about the type of reformers suitable for dispersed fuel cell power plants.
Three types of reformers which has been put to test run were taken up for consideration.
As a result, Fuji Electric has selected single shell multicylinder type reformers for the 5-MW fuel cell power plant being planed by the company.

Fuel cell power plants need inverters to convert DC power generated by fuel cells into commercial AC power to supply to power systems. Dispersed utility fuel cell power plants have large capacities of 20 to 30 MW and require (1) advanced function and high RAS (2) low cost and also high efficiency, and (3) small size. As an example of an inverter for the fuel cell power plants that satisfies the above, this paper describes the configuration, specification, and technical bases of a inverter in the 5 MW class.

Phosphoric acid fuel cells near to commercialization are expected to be first brought into on-site use. Fuji Electric has developed a fuel cell power system for detached islands as a practical use. It uses methanol as raw fuel because of easy storing and handling there. After factory operational tests, it was sent to Tokashiki Island, Okinawa, and was put in operation interconnecting with the island power system in October, 1989. We checked good plant performance, and started transmission operation in January, 1990, first in Japan. Operational researches still continue.

Fuji Electric started developing fuel cell power unit for small transit buses entrusted by US Department of Energy (DOE) in 1988. In the phase I, we developed a methanol reformate oil-cooled 25-kW phosphoric acid fuel cell power unit and delivered to DOE. The evaluation test in US reported that the exhaust gas was clean, generating efficiency was high, and main parts were compact, which verified the possibility of applying fuel cells to bus driving power as purposed by the phase I. This paper introduces the result of the phase I and the plant of the phase II 50-kW power unit for buses.

Fuji Electric has shipped 22 phosphoric acid fuel cell plants since the first fuel cell power unit in 1982. The paper shows a supply list of Fuji Electric's phosphoric acid fuel cells including under manufacture.
It gives descriptions of the following: the operation results of the 1,000-kW plant of New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization and The Kansai Electric Power Co. and the 50 kW plant of Tohoku Electric Power Co., the details of on-site 50-kW plants of Tokyo Gas Co. and The Kansai Electric Power Co., Rokko Island, and of the naphtha reformate 50-kW plant of Idemitsu Kosan Co.

To make phosphoric acid fuel cells practicable, it is essential to develop cheap, reliable cells.This paper describes the development of an air electrode catalyst and electrode structure to reduce cell cost and the improvements in reliability such as endurance tests.

Fuel processors for fuel cell power plants require performance and functions different from those of the convetional ones. This article introduces the development of various fuel processors to meet those requirements.
Here mentioned are reformers with electric output in 50 to 100 kW class using town gas for on-site use and methanol for vehicle use, and also those using LPG and naphtha.

This paper describes those related to air pollution among emissions from phosphoric acid fuel cell plants: nitrogen oxides (NO_x), sulfur oxides (SO_x), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and particles. The emissions of fuel cells show very low values particularly when compared with the emission control values and the actual values of diesel engines and gas turbines on which regulations have recently become severer in Japan.

Fuel cell power plants can be rated suitable for heat utilization because exhaust heat is comparatively easy to recover. Exhaust heat can be recovered as high grade heat recovery from fuel cell subsystems and low grade heat recovery from plant exhaust gas. The quantity of high grade heat recovery is determined by the operating conditions of generating units; however, that of low grade heat recovery varies according to the conditions of cooling water (heat utilization), which needs reasonable combination of recovery and utilization. In on-site cogeneration, analysis is required to find the optimum balance of demand (electricity and heat) and plant capacity and the optimum operation mode.

The enforcement regulations and the engineering and technical standards of the electric utility law concerning the authorization of construction schedules and inspection connected with new energy technologies such as fuel cells, etc. have been revised and enforced since June 1, 1990. The demands of private enterprises for the relaxation of control and simplification of procedures to accelerate new energy technologies are well taken into account in the revision.This paper outlines the revised points and gives a brief description of the relation to other regulations.