Navy Developing Fuel Cell System to Power Ships

The Office of Naval Research is developing innovative propulsion systems based on new fuel-cell technology for efficient generation of electrical power. The ONR is currently funding development of a method to extract hydrogen from diesel fuel. A diesel reforming system would take advantage of the relative low cost of the fuel.

Unlike gas turbines and diesel engines, fuel cells do not require combustion, which means they don't produce pollutants such as nitrogen oxide. And fuel cells are more efficient than combustion engines. Typically operating efficiency for a Navy shipboard gas-turbine engines is 16 to 18 percent; the fuel cell system currently under development could provide operating efficiency of 37 to 52 percent. ONR is testing through June a 500-kilowatt diesel fuel reformer that is compatible with a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, at the Department of Energy Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

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