A leading company in the domestic smart grid and renewable energy businesses, Hyosung rolled up its sleeves to facilitate commercialization of household fuel cells. Our company has developed a “1kW Dual Cell Stack,” which is a component of a home fuel cell system.
The stack is a core part in a home fuel cell, which uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, water vapor and heat. It is a high value-added product which accounts for over 30% of the cost of a fuel cell or a cogeneration system. The stack, developed by Hyosung, is the world’s first 1kW dual cell that has 2 cells per tier, and can reduce costs by more than 40% compared to existing products.
The household fuel cells are an eco-friendly alternative to producing electricity and heat using city gas. Compared to fossil fuels whose energy conversion efficiency remains at about 40%, that of fuel cells is as much as 85%. In the domestic home electricity rate market where when more electricity is used the price is increased, thus driving up power bills, the fuel cells can reduce electricity or heating bills by 0.3 Million ~1.5 Million won each year depending on the amount of energy use. In particular, it can significantly benefit the environment since it annually reduces 1.5 tons of CO2 per household fuel cell.
Director Park Seung-ryong of the
Meanwhile, a 2011 economic report by the Fuji Research Institute said the global home fuel cell market is forecast to grow by over 30% each year to become about two trillion won by 2015 and about five trillion won by 2018. Since 2009, the Korean government has been supporting distribution of household fuel cells as part of its effort to foster one million green homes, and last May announced its plan to build a demonstration complex of the world’s largest hydrogen-powered town using fuel cells.
