Application-oriented design and field trial of the LPG-powered eneramic® power generator

Off-grid power generation is considered as an attractive market for fuel cells. For this reason, a compact SOFC battery hybrid system is being developed and commercialized by Fraunhofer IKTS. The 100 W hybrid system operates on commercially available LPG fuels. Different prototypes are being tested in the lab and under real-life applications while a first product version is available for industrial customers. For off-grid applications frequent start-stop cycles are expected, which are challenging for the SOFC technology. Following these requirements IKTS has consistently improved robustness of the SOFC up to now 110 start-stop cycles by quality measures and the operating procedure. The reliability of the core technology highlights the power degradation of < 0.6 % per 1,000 h over 16,000 h of Hotbox operation. The results of the automated laboratory and field tests will be discussed in this paper.