HFCCAT Competition Call No. 1

The first call for applications for funding under the HFCCAT Demonstration Programme opened as publicised on 23 October 2006. The call closed on 24 November and during this time a number of applications were received for both the HFC and CAT funding. A panel of independent assessors assessed these applications over a two-stage application process; a number of these were successful and are now signed-up to the Programme. The projects selected at Call 1 are listed below.

HFC

Mobile welfare cabin remote power supply programme; using a reformate LPG PEM fuel cell system to provide a viable energy efficient alternative to the diesel genset

Summary - The project combines a pre-production Voller Energy Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) reformer and PEM fuel cell system with a GenQuip GroundHog welfare cabin. This will provide a mobile construction/temporary cabin which is cleaner, quieter, lower emission and far more energy efficient than current technologies. Further the project will develop a fully integrated heating and power system with wide applicability to industry.

Lead organisation – Voller Energy Group PLC
Partner – Gen Quip PLC

This project has been cancelled.

LBSL hydrogen bus project

Summary - The principal aim of the project is to operate a London bus route using exclusively hydrogen bus technologies for a minimum of 5 years, which is a key step towards commercialising a potentially CO 2 free solution for bus operation in London.

Lead organisation – London Bus Services Limited

TfL hydrogen cars/vans project

Summary - The principal aim of this project is to operate 20 hydrogen vehicles of various types in day-to-day operation amongst London 's public transport fleets over three years.

Lead organisation – Transport for London

This project has been cancelled.

Penner Road fuel cell CHP demonstration

Summary - The principal aim of the project is to demonstrate the use of a 200kW PAFC unit in a commercial building for combined heat and power.

Lead organisation – Scottish and Southern Energy PLC
Partner – Logan Energy Limited

Microcab demonstration for Zero Emission Campus (ZEC)

Summary - This project will demonstrate four practical, low-energy fuel cell vehicles operating in routine light transport applications for one year (following one year of initial testing, development and trials) on The University of Birmingham campus. The project will be completed in summer 2010.

Lead organisation – Microcab Industries Limited
Partners – RDM Automotive Ltd., Delta Motorsport Ltd., University of Birmingham, Coventry University, Westfield Sportscars Ltd., Potenza Technology Ltd., Tempus Developments Ltd.

CAT

Demonstration of an oxyfuel combustion system

Summary - The principal aim is to demonstrate an oxyfuel combustion system of a type and size (40MW t ) applicable to new and retrofit advanced supercritical oxyfuel plant. A combustion rig will be developed at Renfrew , Scotland to carry out the testing.

Lead organisation – Doosan Babcock
Partners – Scottish and Southern Energy, E.ON UK PLC., Drax Power Limited, Scottish Power Generation Limited, EdF Energy, Dong Energy Generation, Air Products PLC., Imperial College London , University of Nottingham , Vattenfall AB.

The Programme is expected to run a second call for funding. DECC will make an announcement regarding a second call in due course. Any information on future calls will be given nearer the time on this website.

Over the lifetime of the scheme, DECC would like to see a wide range of projects come forward, examples of which could include:

Hydrogen
Production technologies:

• Fossil fuel reforming
• Hydrogen from biomass
• Hydrogen from wastes
• Coal gasification with CO 2 separation (see below)
• Electrolysis

Storage and distribution technologies:

• Compressors (for compressed or liquefied gas)
• Compressed gas storage
• Liquid storage
• Metal hydrides
• Chemical hydrides
• Fuelling infrastructure

Use technologies:

• Internal combustion engines
• Fuel cells (see below)
• Modified gas turbines

Integrated systems:

• Large scale demonstration of hydrogen energy use in a community

Fuel Cells
Technologies:

• Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (also known as Solid Polymer Fuel Cells)
• Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
• Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells
• Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells
• Direct Methanol Fuel Cells
• Alkaline Fuel Cells

Applications:

• Vehicle propulsion
• Vehicle auxiliary power units
• Distributed generation
• CHP
• Remote power
• Battery/genset replacement

Carbon Abatement Technologies
Technologies for higher efficiency conversion incorporating capture-ready concepts:

• Advanced boilers and steam turbines
• Gas turbines for higher temperature gas combustion
• Improved gasifiers and key components including air separation

Fuel switching to lower carbon alternatives:

• Co-firing of fossil fuel with biomass and/or wastes.

CO 2 capture and storage technologies:

• Natural Gas processing with carbon capture to produce hydrogen
• Carbon capture for pulverised coal technology, including oxy-fuel firing and amine scrubbing
• Gasification with syngas production and CO 2 separation
• CO 2 transport, injection and geological storage, including qualification of site and demonstrating monitoring and verification techniques

State Aid
This programme has been approved under the European State Aid guidelines for R&D (see link to the guidelines on our links page). These guidelines define the levels of research: fundamental, industrial and pre-competitive, which we are allowed to subsidise, and define eligible costs and maximum payment levels. It is expected that most or all of the demonstration projects funded under the first call will be the pre-competitive level – in order to be eligible for a grant projects must as a minimum meet the definition of pre-competitive R&D as set out in Annex I of the guidelines.

The primary aim being to advance promising technologies from the R&D / laboratory stage to the pre-commercialisation stage in readiness for near commercial application.

The R&D State Aid guidelines have recently been reviewed. Information on these new guidelines will be issued on this website at the second call.

Stage 1 Qualification Process
Refer to HFCCAT launch presentation.