Acumentrics Installs SOFC in National Park

Acumentrics Corp. has installed a 5kW solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park near Cleveland, Ohio. The system runs on fossil fuels without the need for external reforming.

The unit is installed outside a lodge building at the park’s environmental education center where it will operate in grid parallel mode and also have the capability of operating in independent island mode. The independent island mode will meet the educational facility’s critical electric power needs in the event of a power loss. In spring 2006, a second 5kW unit will be added to bring the total installed capacity to 10kW.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Park Service, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and First Energy, this is the nineteenth SOFC unit shipped by the Westwood, Massachusetts, firm as part of its beta field-testing program.