Toyota announced today that it plans to provide, for the
third year in a row, home-use fuel cell cogeneration units as part of a
government project to verify the practical use of CO2-reducing stationary fuel cells.
The municipal-gas-fueled 1-kW home-use fuel cell cogeneration
units—which generate electricity and capture waste heat for household
heating—are to play a role in the continuing Large-Scale Stationary
Fuel Cell Demonstration Project of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry (METI). Twenty-four of the units will be provided to
project participant Toho Gas Co., Ltd. (Toho), which will install them
in homes in three central-Japan prefectures (Aichi, Gifu and Mie) to
collect data toward commercialization. The government project, which
was originally scheduled to conclude on March 31, 2008, is now expected
to run until the end of March 2009.
TMC's home-use fuel cell cogeneration units run on a system—jointly
developed with Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd.—consisting of a stationary fuel
cell and a hot water storage tank. Recent improvements, such as a
modified heat-recovery circuit, have boosted heat-recovery efficiency
by roughly 20% (as measured by TMC) without any loss in
power-generation efficiency. The result is a marked reduction in
household primary-energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
As part of its corporate social responsibility program, TMC has long
positioned global environmental preservation as a top-priority
management concern and is actively working to provide technological and
commercial solutions to various environmental issues. To this end, TMC
intends to continue investing in the research and development needed to
reduce costs and improve the overall efficiency and durability of its
residential fuel cell cogeneration system.
About TMC's participation in government stationary fuel cell project
TMC has been participating in METI's Large-Scale Stationary Fuel Cell
Demonstration Project since 2006. The project is being carried out by
the New Energy Foundation, which has been encouraging energy suppliers
to participate every year since 2005. As a fuel cell system
manufacturer, TMC provided 24 residential fuel cell cogeneration units
to energy supplier and project participant Toho in 2006 and 28 units in
2007.
Outline of TMC's residential fuel cell cogeneration system
1) Development
TMC’s residential fuel cell cogeneration system is the result of a
joint effort involving the respective technologies of TMC and Aisin.
TMC developed the fuel cell and Aisin developed the overall system.
To verify if TMC's residential fuel cell cogeneration system could be
practically applied to multi-unit housing complexes, two system units
were installed at the residence for official participants in the 2005
World Exposition, Aichi, Japan (EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan) and used from
February through the end of September 2005.
To verify the system's energy-saving performance and reliability, a
unit was installed at the Aichi Prefectural Government Office in July
2006 and used until the end of March 2008.
2) Main Features
TMC's residential fuel cell cogeneration system provides a high level
of power-generation efficiency, even when used frequently in the
low-to-medium load range. It is extremely quiet, requires little
maintenance and is light and compact.
3) Main Specifications
TMC's residential fuel cell cogeneration system consists of a fuel cell unit and a hot water storage tank.
Fuel cell unit
| Type |
Polymer electrolyte |
| Fuel |
Processed natural gas (13A) |
| Output |
1kW |
| Rated generation efficiency (LHV*1) |
38% (35% HHV*2) |
| Heat recovery efficiency (LHV) |
52% (48% HHV) |
| Rated total efficiency (LHV) |
90% (83% HHV) |
| Size |
Height: 900mm; width: 860mm; depth: 350mm |
| Weight |
120kg (dry weight) |
Hot water storage unit
| Capacity |
200 liters |
| Temperature |
Approximately 60°C |
| Standard functions |
Backup hot water supply, fully automatic bath, multifunctional heat reservoir (floor heating, etc.) |
| Size |
Height: 1,840mm; width: 800mm; depth: 450mm |
| Weight |
122kg (dry weight) |
*1. Lower heating value. Does not include the latent heat of vaporization of water.
*2. Higher heating value. Includes the latent heat of vaporization of water.
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