At the end of 2014, testing of a power supply installation, that is an independent power source based on solid oxide fuel cells (ICS-SOFC-1500), has started at gas distribution section of the “Gazprom Transgaz Ekaterinburg” LLC. This power supply station was manufactured by the order of the “Gazprom TransGaz Ekaterinburg” LLC at the“Plant of Electrochemical Converters” (Novouralsk) in cooperation with the “Uralintekh” CJSC (Yekaterinburg) and with the scientific support of the Institute of High Temperature Electrochemistry of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IHTE UB RAS).
Block-box for testing
Diploma of the Ministry of Defense of Russian Federation
In 2013, the power supply installation was exhibited at the “Day of Innovations” of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and was awarded with the Diploma in the field of the innovative technologies development and implementation.
The power supply installation testing is carried out in a special block-box in the real Ural climate conditions. The power supply installation provides the work of the pipe line cathode protection station, which is situated in the same block-box. Such block boxes with power supply installations and stations of cathode protection are supposed to be placed along the pipe lines and will help to protect gas lines from corrosion, that allows increasing the exploitation lifecycle and sharply decrease the costs for the gas lines maintenance.
The control for the power supply installation characteristics is carried out in the remote access mode. At present, the duration of tests has over passed 1.5 thousands of hours. The power supply installation operates in the economy mode, developing power of 1.4 kW at 43% unit efficiency. There were no significant changes in the power supply installation characteristics during the testing period.
Power supply installation ICS-SOFC-1500 in the block-box unit
