A fuel and energy lab, a multi-purpose grid for testing distributed generation (DG), and a hydrogen fueling station—all under one arching canopy overhead and latticed with a 30-kW photovoltaic (PV) array. C.G. Michael Quah—a Ph.D. chemical engineer who oversees the setup—calls it a "three-pronged approach" to holistically studying power generation. Sometime in mid-2005, he and his colleagues will open the doors on the new 5,600 square-foot Power Pavilion, which is part of the futuristic NextEnergy Center in Tech Town, Wayne State University's research and technology park in Detroit, MI.

Next to the expansive Microgrid pavilion workshop is a new $10 million technology center combining office space, additional labs, and exhibition facilities; much of it will be devoted to one primary purpose: the advancement of alternative fuels, with an eye towards their potentially significant impact on the world's energy future

Underwriting it all is a nonprofit corporation, NextEnergy. Founded in 2002, its mission is to conduct fuel and energy R&D.

Why this Emphasis? Why Now?
It's no secret that the world's dependence on petroleum can't go on forever. Fuel diversification is clearly the solution—but precisely what fuels, in what relative proportions, and how to develop and market them cost-effectively, remain three tough questions. In 2003 President Bush's State of the Union address outlined a vision for massive federal investment in a specifically hydrogen-based future. During the ensuing two years the DOE began awarding grants to dozens of research centers, in what will eventually total $1.7 billion in government research and development (R&D) funding on hydrogen, fuel cells, and fleet demonstrations based on hydrogen-powered fuel cell systems.

For Quah, NextEnergy's vice president and chief technology officer, research on H2 fuel cells as prime movers for DG and for vehicles will indeed be one major focus. But there's much more besides. NextEnergy's staff will also explore ways to improve biogas synthesis from agricultural waste, produce biofuels, study solar power and other renewable energy sources, and develop H2 reformation—in addition to assessing energy hardware technologies and interactions.

For the DG industry as a whole, one obvious dividend from such research will be an enlarged range of choices for fueling onsite power projects—which are now often thwarted by erratic natural gas markets.

Experimental Grid for Plug-and-Play
Although H2 fuel cell—powered cars are still only experimental today, what Quah and NextEnergy have more immediately in mind for the DG industry is a combination testing ground and cogeneration product showcase—all "for hire." Benefits to industry participants could be realized right away. Powering up at the pavilion's opening will be a unique microgrid array within. It's ingeniously designed for conducting R&D on areas critical to DG advancement. The grid's lab-style outdoor setting provides controlled real-world conditions. Its power output will be exported to the NextEnergy Center and adjacent Tech Town neighborhood. "It's an actual, dynamic load," Quah notes. Hence, this unprecedented arrangement offers DG and related product developers the best of both theoretical research and reality-based testing.

Design and engineering for the Microgrid Power Pavilion was handled by DTE Energy Technologies (DTE-ET), a major DG development firm (and nonregulated subsidiary of DTE) which has installed more than 1,500 onsite power systems since its founding in 1998. For this little grid in Detroit, DTE-ET assisted NextEnergy in selecting four hydrogen-fed fuel cells made by Plug Power, of Latham, NY, as prime movers; each is capable of producing about 5 kW. Other DG resources here include two external combustion Stirling Engines outputting about 55 kW each and capable of being powered by multiple fuels, such as H2, natural gas, or bio-diesel fuels. Three internal combustion engines supplied by DTE-ET will also run two natural gas—fueled engines made by iPower (now wholly owned by DTE) and a hydrogen-fueled engine built by Ford. And, again, on top of it all (literally) is 30 kW of rooftop PV.

This whole DG network is configured to a point of common coupling with the Detroit Edison grid, and thus the system can run either in parallel, to assure uninterrupted energy, or independently in an islanded mode.

Combined output, Quah notes, will average 500 kW and will range up to 1 MW, as additional prime movers are added—sufficient for powering the NextEnergy Center plus Tech One labs, offices, and classrooms. In the future, it will also energize with H2 from reformation processes; the hydrogen will be available to fuel several fuel cell—powered vehicles per day.

For experimental purposes these resources can be matched against benchmarks or compared with one another while running on various alternative fuels. Relative output efficiency and operating cost can be logged, thereby assessing "how much power is going in, in terms of fuel, and what we're getting out, in terms of energy—and all the issues of interconnection of these technologies," Quah says. A key objective, naturally, will be cost studies "to see what happens with the change of input cost when you feed the system with H2 and natural gas or another alternative fuel," he adds.

A DG Test Track
Besides those fuel projects on the drawing board, what's extraordinarily valuable for the DG industry as a whole is the presence of two open bays, in which other equipment manufacturers, cogen developers, and energy engineers can come in and do their own research as well.

NextEnergy's facility expansion

Quah and his colleague Jim Saber, NextEnergy's director of business development, explain some of the anticipated opportunities here for product development. "Any other prime mover that meets our criteria," Quah says, "could be checked out to see how it interacts" under assorted configurations. For example, suppose you're an inventor who has developed a hybrid electric vehicle that can export 100 kW or 200 kW of electric power; you can bring it to NextEnergy's pavilion, says Quah, "and we'll interconnect your vehicle appropriately so we can check how it exports power, relative to the prime movers onsite."

Saber amplifies, "We're providing a platform where essential partners of NextEnergy… would have a means to test, validate, try out, and get 'real life' learning about their technologies in an urban environment." Moreover, he adds, it's often valuable for DG developers to have a site where they can demonstrate and substantiate performance claims, to persuade prospective adopters that cogen power works as promised. The Power Pavilion provides this in a very open, transparent environment closely simulating a real-world setting. The whole effect could make a very persuasive presentation arena for showing the real benefits of, say, a new and improved heating-cooling-and-power configuration, prior to its installation. "We can provide this unique piece of infrastructure for our partners," explains Saber, who is now signing up experiment-minded clients and tenants. Moreover, he adds, product tests and demos need not be limited to full-scale energy production applications alone. Rather, systems can be evaluated down to sub-component level. For that matter, even very small portable power systems of less than 5 kW are testable, and this in an environment where their interactivity with other resources can be assessed simultaneously. A developer could use the pavilion to conduct multiple protocols, varying fuels and modes of application—all to see how best to meet a customer's need or emerging market.

In sum, the NextEnergy Power Pavilion is primarily for testing—yet with real-world operational characteristics. "We are almost like microgrid-plus," says Quah. Although normally supplying power to the NextEnergy Center and part of Tech Town, not all the generators are necessarily compelled to be online, and they can be applied selectively—turned off or on as needed—for a given experimental design.

A whole host of power generator tests are possible, in fact. Quah and Saber outline several, which are already in development with initial clients, or are anticipated. First, as already noted, will be assessment of alternative energy and experimental prime movers. Developers who may want to see "whether a new power source is really ready for prime time can come by and plug it into this working grid, "such that you get closer to real life than just the lab test with load banks or something," says Quah. Anyone doing development work on prime movers, fuels, and new generating technologies in, say, the tens to hundreds of kilowatts output range, "are welcome to come—within certain parameters of course," he says.

NextEnergy vice president and chief technology officer C.G. Michael Quah

Next comes heating, cooling, and power output research. Because combined cooling, heating, and power cogeneration is critical in DG comparative studies, the NextEnergy testing grid was designed with the necessary heat-recovery, thermal distribution, and chiller plumbing already pre-installed as readily attachable harnesses. "This allows for very rapid quick-connect" of fuel lines (both natural gas and others), notes Quah, "and of thermal output and electrical output connections as well." Testing approaches the ease of "plug-and-play."

The pavilion's floor and basement are also designed to make it easy for DG resources to be quickly dropped into position, hooked up, and also configured for gauging interactions with other resources. Beneath the pavilion floor, an open basement allows for "tremendous airflow," notes Quah, and also eases a technician's access. Exhaust heat enters the hot-water loop or it can power a heat-activated chiller. Parameters and settings can then be varied experimentally, and resulting metrics recorded.

But how (you wonder) can one "all-purpose" infrastructure handle different generators' widely varied heat output? The answer is that some consideration of ranges has also been factored in. Fuel cells, for instance, can be plumbed for a lower heating value than, for example, the exhaust from a higher temperature Stirling genset. An internal combustion generator yields exhaust at yet another temperature, and its waste heat too can be utilized. Regardless of the energy source installed, multiple combined cooling, heating, and power systems can feed thermal energy into the same chillers and hot water loops. Comparative impacts can be readily monitored.

After an experimenter finishes validating heat and energy output, notes Saber, the resource can be quickly uncoupled and hoisted out, perhaps to be replaced with a second or third prototype model for further head-to-head comparisons.

Another potential area for exploration will be advanced electronics. Beyond generator performance and fuel studies, more difficult evaluations are being envisioned—e.g., generator interconnectivity and interactions, automated power controls, and the workings of power inverters and electronics.

In a related vein there'll be testing on microgrid islanding and disconnect systems. Critical questions surround the issue of power quality thresholds, and when and how a grid should disconnect. What occurs, for instance, when a microgrid must become autonomous due to a major grid interruption or relatively minor voltage sag, which must be counteracted for the sake of quality-sensitive applications? Islanding is a hot research topic currently; the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers is in the throes of writing pertinent standards on interconnectivity.

Another related future issue to explore is the next generation of hybrid fuel cell vehicles that will be able to export electric power: What will happen to the interconnected onboard generator here if, say, the grid suddenly surges or lags? Or what, Quah poses, "are the necessary black boxes that you need to put in there so that you don't hurt the vehicle—because the grid may be sagging—or vice versa, when the vehicle, let's say the particular hybrid, is coughing or hacking?" Hence, Quah envisions, "The whole interconnect scenario will be developed" under the Power Pavilion, both regarding multiple resources on a microgrid, and for solo DG resources attempting to export energy within a microgrid.

Still another subject that Quah and/or Saber's clients will be exploring is dual-purpose vehicles. As noted, some future H2 fuel cell vehicles, particularly large transports, will evolve dual functions. They'll sometimes operate as cargo carriers, as they do now, and sometimes as rolling power stations. In the latter role they'll—someday—be readily connectible to energy grids, and will export power.

Loading up NextEnergy's microgrid

In the relatively near term, the trucking industry must shortly begin to grapple with increasingly strict anti-idling laws and air-quality standards that will severely limit diesel engine running hours. Future trucks needing auxiliary power will no longer burn diesel at all, but—perhaps soon—a cleaner fuel alternative. If they're eventually powered by H2, they'll also run relatively quietly and with high cogeneration efficiency. In effect, this will convert highway truck stops into little DG generating plants. When idling at night, trucks could be selling power to a local grid.

A similar offshoot will be fuel cell—powered military vehicles capable of generating lots of energy silently for highly advanced surreptitious surveillance and communications. Quah amplifies, "These are what I call dual use systems that, de facto, will demand vehicles that can export power." In future decades, an even greater trend towards functional convergence may occur, as power generation needed to run drive trains and stationary electric systems becomes interchangeable. NextEnergy's pavilion will house refueling platforms offering H2, natural gas, and perhaps other clean alternatives—again, in order to facilitate comparisons in cost-effectiveness.

A logical extension will also be examined, namely fully mobile power grids. Multiple truck-based generators are already deployable to make "instant microgrids" for restoring knocked-out power in weather emergencies or natural disasters, and for military uses—and, again, not only for power, but, Quah points out, in appropriate cases, "for power and heat, and even cooling" with onboard cogeneration. Hence, R&D will need to occur on small, lightweight compact portable combined heating and power equipment with quick-connect capabilities. Quah anticipates the advent of what he calls "the advanced mobile microgrid."

A likely variation of this will be military base power-recovery. Running concurrently with NextEnergy's grid in Detroit will be a parallel version customized for military applications, at nearby Selfridge Air National Guard base. This armed-forces variant will extend the transportability and rapid deployment concept even further. In sight here is a truck-borne microgrid array that could supply 10% or 20% of critical power needs for a US military base within 48 hours of a power loss, whether through natural disaster or conflict. (Quah, incidentally, prior to joining forces with NextEnergy in 2004, spent two years at the US Department of Defense (DOD), directing H2 fuel cell development for the army.)

This small niche application also underscores the importance of a previous point regarding the need for diversification in prime movers (and fuels). Currently, many power systems rely on natural gas over vulnerable, iffy fuels; a would-be attacker of a military or urban power system might succeed simply by cutting fuel lines. Hence, again, our national need to strengthen energy security will require diversification of fuels.

Another blossoming product-development theme will likely be high stakes, high-reliability power. Critical-use sites like public safety agencies, hospitals, military bases, disaster control command centers, government administrative centers, and water pumping stations, etc, often require more than simply standby generators. Many such facilities would willingly pay for high-reliability, high-security 24/7 energy redundancy. It's another important niche for DG suppliers to capitalize on, and Quah and Saber expect several firms to jump in. The NextEnergy grid can put such systems through "stress tests," proving the durability claims, and reassuring future buyers.

Future high-stakes—serving energy backup systems may well diversify and distribute the generation systems further, Quah suggests, "into several locations, with separate technologies, and with each running on different fuel sources." Thus, if one or two systems are disabled, others could still supply power. He adds, "It's this ultimate in security-through-diversity that we believe the organizations needing high stakes and premium power may need."

Lastly, the research site's primary mission, as already noted, will be integrated with all the rest, that mission being H2 and alternative fuels testing. Fuel development at this site will be carried out within research labs primarily, but not exclusively, for H2. Other NextEnergy fuel projects will also delve into hydrogen generation, reformation, storage, delivery, distribution, and conversion into power. Working prototypes of H2 fuel cells at the Power Pavilion will yield invaluable insight into their viability as an "heir apparent" to gensets fueled by petroleum and other combustibles. Other renewable fuels, such as bio-diesel and synfuels, will also be studied.

All that said, though, NextEnergy isn't particularly fuel-centric, Quah notes, and more near-term, familiar diversification programs will also be advanced. Look for PV arrays, digester gas, natural gas, and alternatives that can be stored and delivered to either vehicles or generators. A new bio-diesel fuel (produced with 30% vegetable oils) will be converted into H2 for fuel cells; the cost of this methodology will be assessed. Generator engines will also be comparison-tested running on alternative fuels, as both improve. Quah argues, "As researchers, there's a need and obligation to compare multiple fuels and multiple prime movers" for their respective cost and output efficiency. He emphasizes, "We're really in this for a comprehensive understanding of alternative energies." NextEnergy is not advocating specific ones, he says, but is studying how they all function in practical settings, singly, interactively, and comparatively in terms of relative cost and output "and from well-to-wheel, for relative efficiency."

The above list hardly exhausts all the possibilities, of course. Future DG research is likely to become more diversified and more prodigiously market-driven than ever. Spurring innovation currently, are DOE and also DOD funding. Add to these the still-unfolding marketplace aftermath of utility deregulation; the urgency to modernize and improve transmission capacity of the nation's grids; new energy product innovations promising to carve out new markets; emerging technology for DG interoperability; increased demand nearly everywhere for power quality/reliability; the need to curtail fossil fuel emission; perhaps increasing opportunities for export; and finally, the inevitable arrival—eventually—of multiple alternative fuels. With all of these factors in play, even more new niches will emerge. The first priority in R&D will be to improve the industry's understanding of manifold customer requirements.

Too, Quah predicts, customer solutions will increasingly tend toward tailored energy systems having hybrid, multiple resources, often in a microgrid-based "mix." This will enable better and more cost-effective custom fitting for a community's localized environmental or regulatory needs. For example, sunbelt communities will obviously select and design more PV into their mix-and-match power generation, while still retaining redundancy in resources and probably preferring multiple fuels, too. Counties with tight air-quality standards will necessarily avoid fuels with even marginal emission characteristics, thus they may soon emerge as prime candidates for pollution-free H2 fueled gensets. Very warm regions may require more durable and rigorously tested trigeneration cooling systems, which are also better integrated with onsite power and augmented by solar sources. Areas with consistent wind patterns will prefer localized grids designed for plugging in very low-cost wind-turbine power. And so on. DG developers in this energy market, Quah suggests, "can sort of pick up the device or tool that helps you fulfill that mission or requirement" instead of pushing a single specific technology.

In order to get there, though, DG developers will need to perfect their knowledge of both the market's needs and of how resources interact on these customized grids. "That's our approach here," Quah sums up, as NextEnergy looks towards next-generation onsite networked power—and perhaps to an era in which energy and fuels become cleaner, safer, quieter, and perhaps even more affordable. DE

La Mesa, CA—based writer DAVID ENGLE specializes in construction-related topics.

DE - September/October 2005