ClearEdge Works Toward Cost-Effective Home Fuel Cell

Fuel cells are garnering a lot of attention these days. Like photo voltaics (solar panels) and wind turbines, fuel cells are an appealing option in a world looking for cleaner, greener sources of energy. But unlike solar- or wind-powered systems, most people don’t even know what a fuel cell looks like, much less how it works.

That’s not a problem for Brett Vinsant, founder and vice president of operations for ClearEdge Power, Inc. of Hillsboro, Oregon. Vinsant is striving to make his small, stationary fuel cell systems as reliable, cost-effective, and ordinary as any household appliance. Like a water heater, a fuel cell “isn’t beautiful. Customers will buy the one that’s most reliable,” Vinsant says. “We’ve got to get to the point where it’s easy to buy one at the home improvement store.”

When that day comes, it will bring significant environmental and economic benefits. Fuel cells like those produced by ClearEdge can provide power in remote areas where the electrical grid is unreliable or nonexistent. When they are connected to the grid, the cells can be used full time or as backup in case of power failures, like batteries and generators are today. They can also be used as a supplementary source of power to reduce demand on the grid at peak periods.

The need for energy usually soars on hot afternoons when commercial and residential customers crank up air conditioners to stay comfortable. Having many stand-alone energy sources like fuel cells and solar panels connected to the grid (collectively known as distributed generation) helps the overall power situation both short term and long term. On a hot day, distributed generation can prevent blackouts by supplying energy for individual buildings, reducing the overall demand on the system. Even more important in states like California (the focus of ClearEdge’s sales efforts), owners of distributed-generation systems can “sell” their excess energy to the utility, increasing the overall supply when it is needed most.

The net result of increased distributed generation is that fewer new power plants will be needed, many of which burn coal to generate electricity. But one of the barriers to distributed generation is price, since most alternative energy systems—including fuel cells—are still costlier than fossil fuels.

Digital Prototyping Cuts Costs

ClearEdge works to keep costs down by designing, rapidly prototyping, and building its products in-house. “Our facility, our software, and our personnel allow us to be very flexible,” Vinsant says. “We have the ability to move at the speed of light.” ClearEdge operates out of a 40,000-square-foot former semiconductor plant with two fabrication labs. The state-of-the-art facility allows it to buy raw materials in bulk and turn them into finished goods in a day, compared with the three months required when production was outsourced. By hiring experienced workers who had been laid off from the same facility, ClearEdge saved months of ramp-up time.

ClearEdge’s choice of software also enables it to move fast. The company’s chemical and mechanical engineers use Autodesk® Inventor™ for everything they do, from designing production tools and product components to assembling complete, integrated fuel cell systems. “These guys live for Inventor,” Vinsant laughs. The engineers love Inventor because they can take an idea, develop a design, create a digital prototype, and analyze performance—without ever leaving their computers.

Doing everything digitally saves the time, materials, and costs needed to create physical prototypes. “Inventor gives us the ability to build a product without spending a dime on sheet metal,” Vinsant says. “We can go from concept to actual product, with a full view of every part and value.” Being able to download and integrate the specifications and images from electronics suppliers is another benefit, he says. “We plug them right into our product.”

Packing a Power Plant in a Household Appliance

Doing everything digitally also ensures that all the components will fit and work together seamlessly—especially important when operating under tight space constraints. A small footprint is important for residential power systems. The ClearEdge 5000A, now in the prototype stage, measures only 3 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 4 feet tall. The 5000A will provide a combined 5,000 watts of heat and 5 kilowatts (5,000 watts) of electrical energy—more than enough for most households. It can be installed outside a home like an air conditioning unit and can run on natural gas like a water heater. The system is partway through a 40,000-hour test cycle. (To match the reliability of a household appliance, a unit must run continuously for five years without a significant failure.) The company expects to have market-ready products in 2008.

Another key part of the ClearEdge formula is its choice of materials. Unlike other fuel cell makers, ClearEdge uses silicon in its products instead of a carbon plate. Vinsant says he chose silicon because it has been used successfully in the semiconductor industry for decades and has known strengths and mature manufacturing processes. Because silicon offers less resistance than carbon to the fuel cell’s electrochemical process, a ClearEdge fuel cell can be smaller, lighter, and more powerful than its carbon-based counterparts. It’s also less expensive because raw silicon wafers are commercially available—not the case for carbon.

The silicon also enables ClearEdge products to operate at a higher temperature than comparable fuel cells. The high temperature permits the cell to run on natural gas, methane, or propane—“infrastructure-friendly” fuels that are readily available. Cells running at lower temperatures need pure bottled hydrogen fuel, which is not readily available for residential customers.

Continual Experimentation Toward a Better Future

In its quest to deliver a reliable, affordable home-based fuel cell system for the home market, the ClearEdge team continues to experiment with every possible variable in its design, materials selection, and manufacturing processes. By creating digital prototypes with Autodesk Inventor, it’s easy to simulate and analyze the impact of multiple “what-if” scenarios efficiently and cost-effectively. Having the ability to look inside a component or whole system also simplifies troubleshooting and helps the production team know what they are building.

Vinsant is committed to making alternative energy mainstream. “I’m hoping that in my lifetime, a carbon-neutral model will come about,” he says.