At Union, a different kind of test

SCHENECTADY, Jul 03, 2009 (Albany Times Union - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- PLUG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Here at Beuth House on the Union College campus, students will burn the midnight oil this fall using hydrogen.

The college is taking part in a unique pilot project to test a new type of fuel cell being developed by Plug Power Inc. of Latham.

Known as GenSys, the 5-kilowatt fuel cell runs on natural gas and is designed to provide electricity as well as heat and hot water to homes and small businesses.

Plug is still years away from selling the units commercially. But in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy and National Grid, the region's dominant utility, Plug now is setting out to test GenSys outside the lab.

The unit was being installed this week in the basement of Beuth House, a residence hall that is home during the academic year to 29 students. The fuel cell, which turns natural gas into hydrogen that powers the fuel cell, will provide about 30 percent of Beuth's electricity needs and also supplement its boiler and hot water heater.

The unit will be in place for six months to a year at the residence hall, which has about 8,000 square feet of space. Beuth is one of seven student-run houses in Union's Minerva program, which offer not only living but academic and extracurricular opportunities.

Richard Wilk, a professor in the mechanical engineering department, said he expects Beuth residents and the rest of the student body to embrace the technology.

Other housing on the Union campus uses solar electric panels, and a new science center being built on campus is seeking LEED Gold status from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design.

"It's just a great fit for what we're doing here on campus," Wilk said. "We have a real active interest in sustainability."

Students in the mechanical engineering department will also help create an educational exhibit about fuel cells at the Schenectady Museum and lead student tours of the fuel cell, including those from Ballston Spa Central School District who will visit the campus and Plug Power next week.

"Any chance we get to demonstrate these new technologies, we take the opportunity," said Wilk, who worked at Plug in 2002 during a sabbatical.

John Rathbun, manager of new product and service development at National Grid, said the utility and the Department of Energy are each contributing $250,000 to the project. National Grid has an interest in learning about the reliability of distributed sources of power generation, such as fuel cells, as compared to the traditional centralized model of large power plants, he said.

Rathbun also believes that so-called high-temperature fuel cells such as GenSys, which generate dependable amounts of heat as a byproduct, will be able to replace traditional residential boilers, which are less efficient.

"We're looking at this from the customer's perspective," Rathbun said. "Fuel cells and other technologies will replace the heating devices of today."

Larry Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.

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