Tokyo Gas (Japan) has been conducting demonstrations and field tests of onsite PAFC (phosphoric acid fuel cell) power generation plants for about thirty years, since Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas first participated in the TARGET program launched in the US in 1967. They have mainly operated 50 kW, 100 kW and 200 kW onsite plants at their research institute and their customers' sites, which include hotels, offices, universities, laboratories, factories, district heating and cooling centers (DHC), etc. They have accumulated considerable data and evaluated the performance of PAFC electrical/thermal characteristics, reliability and durability from a composite total of 813,000 hours from more than 40 plants' operation. Under their evaluation of these items, onsite PAFCs have technically attained the commercial level. A remaining hurdle to actually marketing PAFC plants is to reduce the cost. At the same time as they work toward the reduction of several costs related to the plant itself, in areas such as construction, maintenance and overhaul, they are also developing new applications by making the best use of the distinctive features of PAFCs. They have succeeded in developing a high efficiency DC system, a high quality and highly reliable power supply system, as well as some other attractive systems. They anticipate that these applications might expand the fuel cell market, in addition to the conventional cogeneration market thereby promoting mass installation and mass production, which would ultimately bring down the price.
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