Benchtop Fuel Cell System Demonstrated

  • Published
  • By Thomas Brown
  • Propulsion Directorate
Working with Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center and United Technologies Research Center, AFRL researchers conducted a successful ground demonstration of a 1.5 kW "packaged" solid oxide fuel cell operating on synthetic JP-8 fuel produced via Fischer-Tropsch processes. Representatives from the Army, Air Force, and Navy were on hand at UTRC facilities in East Hartford, Connecticut, to witness the benchtop system's real-time operation on S-8 fuel. This demonstration marks a major milestone in joint Army/AF program efforts to produce a flight-weighted 2 kW system, which is scheduled for flight demonstration in a 100 lb class unmanned air vehicle. Plans for displaying the 1.5 kW benchtop system at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress, to be held in Detroit, Michigan, are under way.