The Sustainable Finance Podcast: The Trigen-system produces renewable energy, hydrogen and water

Betsy Schaefer, chief marketing and sustainability officer at FuelCell Energy, joined The Sustainable Finance Podcast to discuss its Tri-gen system, which produces renewable electricity, hydrogen and water from directed (purified) biogas and aims to reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions significantly.

FuelCell Energy is currently collaborating at Toyota Motor North America at the Port of Long Beach, Calif, where neighboring communities have been significantly impacted by decades of emissions from ships, trucks, locomotives and cargo handling equipment.

Founded in 1969 by two scientists interested in energy storage, FuelCell Energy is now a pioneer in clean energy technology and publicly traded on Nasdaq.

“Often, the first question I get asked,” says Schaefer, “is what in the world is a fuel cell? In many ways, it’s similar to a battery, using an electrochemical reaction to create electricity. . . . What’s different about a fuel cell is it uses a continuous source of fuel, like biogas, natural gas or hydrogen, really any sort of methane rich fuel can keep that fuel cell running 24/7.”

Because fuel cell technology does not combust fuel, it can provide important solutions to address climate change, including low carbon energy and direct air capture of carbon dioxide.

“Our fuel cells can be hooked up to a flue stream and capture the carbon dioxide directly from a big industrial source. So imagine you’re at an oil refinery or a big steel plant, a big industrial setting. Our technology can . . . capture about 90% of what’s coming out. And then that carbon dioxide can be used—everything from food and beverage manufacturers that use it for carbonation or maybe for chilling, and there’s a lot of use of carbon dioxide in medical settings,” she explained.

Hydrogen can be an attractive alternate energy source to electricity, which is difficult to store, and could be used in any number of industries: vehicle manufacture, and community wastewater treatment plants, for example. FuelCell Energy is addressing the cost challenge with electrolysis.

“Hydrogen is actually pretty easy to store and can be made renewably, so that when you want to convert it back to electricity, that’s a better sort of on demand way in some cases to create energy. We’re developing technology called electrolysis and we’re able to produce hydrogen from electricity very efficiently. And that’s a big task to solve because the more efficiently you can produce hydrogen, the cheaper it is.”

FuelCell Energy’s sustainability strategy integrates 12 action areas within environmental, social, and governance domains across the business.

“On the environmental front, we focus on establishing our net-zero targets and roadmap, product efficiency and safety, product lifecycle and circularity, and responsible supply chain,” says Schaefer. “Our sustainability strategy is really owned by the business.”

The story of FuelCell’s initiative with Toyota at the Port of Long Beach Energy highlights how the company stays ahead of the curve by scaling innovations, taking calculated risks and collaborating with forward-thinking partners.

“I think for any new technology, there’s always some reluctance to be the first one to take the plunge,” Schaefer shares. “What’s really cool about Long Beach is it’s the 2nd busiest port in the U.S. Toyota imports about 200,000 vehicles a year into the port. . . . Our fuels cells create renewable energy, hydrogen to power Toyota’s hydrogen fleet, and 1,400 gallons of water a day, which Toyota uses to wash its vehicles. It’s one of the first district-like hydrogen production facilities that’s co-located where the hydrogen itself is being used.”

For more stories on exciting developments in fuel cell technology, watch the full interview with Betsy Schaefer of FuelCell Energy on The Sustainable Finance Podcast.

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