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CMR Prototech is currently planning the Phase 2 of the project starting from January 2018.

CHEOP, the story about the fuel cell concept that delivers 32 megawatts from fuel cells running on natural gas and hydrogen, continues. We are now in Phase 1 and CMR Prototech is ready for testing the robust 10 kW solid oxide fuel cell which will be ideal for offshore use.

In April this year Teknisk Ukeblad had the story about the plans for this 32 megawatts system with fuel cells running on natural gas and hydrogen for offshore use. We also mentioned the Phase 1 of this project which is funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN), through the PETROMAKS2 program. Industrial partners are Statoil Petroleum AS and AS Norske Shell.

 

CMR Prototech is currently planning the Phase 2 of the project starting from January 2018.  Both Gassnova and Enova are positive towards this initiative. Besides the oil company Lundin Petroleumexpressed the interest regarding the project. Of course Statoil and AS Norske Shell AS are still in the loop.

 

The project is called Clean Highly Efficient Offshore Power (CHEOP). It is based on experience from 20 years of fuel cell projects in CMR Prototech.

 

For the offshore industry to reduce emissions, increase power efficiency and limit the need for long power cables to remote offshore locations, a fuel cell system developed for offshore power is an ideal candidate. With electric efficiencies of 60%, the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions can be reduced to 50% of the original values. The long-term vision is zero emission power production by including carbon capture and storage (CCS).

 

For topside utilization (see concept image), the goal is replacing the existing gas turbines with fuel cells. Due to the importance of footprint and mass on offshore facilities, a key element is to keep the fuel cell modules compact without the need for extended structures.