$2.5M fuel cell to heat, power Diversey HQ

Diversey Inc. is going to start making its own heat and electricity with a 400-kilowatt fuel cell delivered to company headquarters Monday.

Officials say it will be Wisconsin's first fuel cell to heat and power a commercial building.

Diversey officials say the new technology will save on energy costs, provide nonpolluting energy and reduce carbon emissions.

The unit at Diversey headquarters, 8310 16th St., is expected to provide more than 40 percent of the building's electrical and about 80 percent of its heating needs.

With a 30 percent federal grant this year and other expected grants or rebates, Diversey expects to recoup its $2.5 million investment in about five years. Without those, the payback period would be closer to 10 years.

The fuel cell will be virtually pollution-free and reduce carbon emissions by the equivalent output of 685 cars yearly, the sanitation products company said. In 2008 Diversey pledged to cut carbon emissions, from 2003 levels, by up to 25 percent by 2013.

The fuel cell - about the size of an 18-wheeler trailer - should begin operating in about March, after testing.

The U.S. Department of Energy's website calls the fuel cell "an energy user's dream: an efficient, combustionless, virtually pollution-free power source."

Diversey said no other company in the Upper Midwest generates its own power on site with a fuel cell.

Bob Tierney, an engineer and account executive with the manufacturer, UTC Power, said the nearest one is at the First National Bank building in Omaha, Neb.

UTC Power, based near Hartford, Conn., was the first company to make fuel cells, Tierney said. Most notably, they were made to produce all the water and electricity on manned U.S. space flights.

UTC has sold more fuel cells in the past year than ever before, Tierney said, and 12 of its units are going into the new World Trade Center.

Coca-Cola is using the heat from a fuel cell in its manufacturing process, he said.

Grocery stores are starting to use them, he continued, "To show that fuel cells have arrived - because, to this point, people have thought they were kind of a science project."

Fuel cells can be used in new construction or to retrofit existing buildings, as Diversey is doing with its 277,440-square-foot headquarters built in 1997.

Efficient, clean

The Department of Energy lists the average coal-fired power plant as 33.6 percent efficient. Much potential energy is lost as heat, and some electricity is lost in transmission, said Diversey fuel cell project leader Jeramy LeMieux.

In comparison, UTC says this fuel cell is 90 percent efficient: 40 percent of the potential energy becomes electricity; and 50 percent becomes usable heat. Only 10 percent is lost heat.

For every 1,000 kilowatts of electricity, the average U.S. power plant emits almost 25 pounds of air pollutants - nitrous oxides, sulfurous oxides, hydrocarbons, carbon-monoxide and soot, LeMieux said.

But a fuel cell emits less than 1 pound: just carbon dioxide and any impurities in the natural gas.

So far, LeMieux said, just two fuel cells are in operation in this state, powering remote radio stations. Both are much smaller: less than 5 kilowatts.

"No one has ever done it to power and heat any kind of commercial space in Wisconsin," said Diversey spokesman Mark Goldman.

LeMieux and Goldman said the fuel cell will supply large portions of Diversey's heat and electricity because of many other energy-saving features and practices such as solar-powered faucets and daytime cleaning.

"We are at a threshold to be able to make this economically viable and attractive," Goldman said.

Source: Michael Burke, The Journal Times