Energy Research Corporation (ERC) has been pursuing thedevelopment of the direct carbonate fuel cell (DFC) forcommercialization near the end of this decade. The DFC produces powerdirectly from hydrocarbon fuels electrochemically, without the need forexternal reforming or intermediate mechanical conversion steps. As aresult, the DFC has the potential to achieve very high efficiency withvery low levels of environmental emissions. Modular DFC power plants,which can be shop-fabricated and sited near the user, are ideally suitedfor distributed generation, industrial, cogeneration, and defenseapplications. ERC has selected a 2.85 MW power plant unit for initialmarket entry. Significant advances have been made at ERC in the areas ofcell and stack technology and system optimization. Developmentactivities have progressed to the point where 130 kW stacks have beentested in ERC's subscale power plant, and subscale stacks have beentested in utility and industrial sites around the world. In addition,the world's first multi-megawatt scale DFC power plant was recentlystarted. Two ERC subsidiaries have been formed to advance the havecommercialization effort: the Fuel Cell Manufacturing Corporation (FCMC)and the Fuel Cell Engineering Corporation (FCE). FCMC manufacturescarbonate stacks and multi-stack modules, currently from itsmanufacturing facility in Torrington, CT. FCE is responsible for powerplant design, integration of all subsystems, sales/marketing, and clientservices. This paper describes the results of ERC's ongoing developmentand commercialization efforts
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