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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 22 / Thursday, February 4, 2021 / Rules and Regulations cogeneration facilities requires that a cogeneration facility produce i electric energy, and ii steam or forms of useful energy such as heat which are used for industrial, commercial, heating or cooling purposes. 21 This definition provides for steam or other forms of useful energy to be used for, e.g., an industrial purpose. The creation by a fuel cell system with an integrated natural gas reformation process of a commercially valuable fuel, as described in the NOPR, would fit within the scope of this statutory definition.
Consistent with the PURPA Regulations, fuel cell systems with integrated natural gas reformation equipment produce two forms of energy: Electricity, and the heat/steam thermal energy used to create the hydrogen that fuels the fuel cell system a chemical energy.
12. The Commissions PURPA
Regulations define a topping-cycle cogeneration facility as a cogeneration facility in which the energy input to the facility is first used to produce useful power output and at least some of the reject heat from the power production process is then used to provide useful thermal energy.22
13. Fuel cell systems with integrated natural gas reformation equipment convert the chemical energy within natural gas into electricity using a steam-methane reformation process,23
which essentially converts the methane in the natural gas input to hydrogen, which then reacts with oxygen in the fuel cell to produce electricity. The byproduct of the fuel cells production of electricity is heat and steam, some of which can be used in the steammethane reformation process to convert more methane into hydrogen, which the fuel cells use, in combination with oxygen from the air, to produce electricity.
14. As a cogeneration QF is one that produces electric energy as well as steam or forms of useful energy such as heat which are used for industrial, commercial, heating or cooling purposes, 24 consistent with the PURPA Regulations, fuel cell systems 21 16

U.S.C. 79618A.
CFR 292.202d.
23 Industrial gas manufacturers also produce hydrogen from natural gas using a steam-methane reformation process, but must produce their own steam, usually through combustion of some of the input natural gas. Because the buyers of the resulting hydrogen are usually remote from the industrial gas manufacturer, this hydrogen is either compressed or liquified in order to transport the hydrogen to the end user. Integrating the natural gas steam reformation process into a fuel cell system increases efficiency and avoids the energy loss of external reformation, and compression or liquefaction for surface transportation. Bloom Energy Petition at 8 & App. B.
24 16 U.S.C. 79618.

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with integrated natural gas reformation equipment generate two forms of useful energyelectricity, and heat/steam thermal energy that is used to produce hydrogen a chemical energy.
15. The PURPA Regulations identify three categories of useful thermal output from a topping-cycle cogenerator. They are thermal energy 1 that is made available to an industrial or commercial process . . .; 2 that is used in a heating application . . .; or 3 that is used in a space cooling application. 25 In the NOPR, the Commission proposed to amend its regulations to provide that the production of heat/steam by a solid oxide fuel cell system for use in an integrated natural gas reformation process to produce hydrogen yields a useful thermal energy output made available to an industrial process that, as described in the NOPR, entitles such a system to be considered a topping cycle cogeneration facility that qualifies, subject to meeting the other relevant requirements,26 to be a QF. The Commission stated that the recent technological advances in utilizing the thermal energy from a solid oxide fuel cell in an integrated steam hydrocarbon reformation process were not known or anticipated when the Commission adopted its original definitions for useful thermal energy, but that fact should not stand in the way of the Commission now recognizing such advances and responding accordingly.27
16. In recognition of technological advancements over the past 40 years and Congresss commitment to continuing progress in the development of efficient electric energy generating technology, 28 and in light of the development and commercialization of fuel cell systems with integrated natural gas reformation equipment since the original adoption of the PURPA Regulations, the Commission proposed in the NOPR to amend section 292.202h of the PURPA
Regulations by adding a new paragraph providing that useful thermal energy output include the thermal energy that is used by a solid oxide fuel cell system with an integrated steam hydrocarbon
reformation process for production of fuel for electricity generation.29
17. In proposing this change to its regulations, the Commission did not propose to revise section 292.205d of the PURPA Regulations, which establishes additional criteria for, in particular, new cogeneration facilities seeking to sell electric energy pursuant to PURPA section 210.30 The Commission proposed that any new cogeneration facility that is a solid oxide fuel cell system with an integrated steam hydrocarbon reformation process would be required to satisfy the existing criteria of section 292.205d of the PURPA Regulations if it seeks to make sales of electric energy pursuant to PURPA section 210.
IV. Comments 18. FuelCell Energy, which explains that it operates fuel cell systems on three continents that have generated over 10 billion kWh of power, asks the Commission to revise its regulations to encompass more than just solid oxide fuel cell systems. FuelCell Energy asserts that Bloom Energy requested that the Commission expand its current definition of a cogeneration facility so that Bloom Energys solid oxide fuel cells qualify as a QF. FuelCell Energy argues that the Commission should revise the definition, so it can apply more broadly to any fuel cell systems that use waste heat for the reforming of fuel to produce hydrogen, and not just Bloom Energys solid oxide fuel cell system.31
19. FuelCell Energy asserts that its carbonate fuel cells use waste heat in an integrated fuel reforming process to produce hydrogen,32 just as Bloom Energys solid oxide fuel cells do.
FuelCell Energy contends that, as long as fuel cell systems use waste heat for the reforming of hydrocarbon fuel to produce hydrogen, the particular fuel cell technology should not be exclusive or exclusionary; so long as there is no efficiency tradeoffs or additional negative environmental impacts, the type of fuel cell technology whether 29 NOPR,
25 18

CFR 292.202h.
26 See 18 CFR 292.203b, 292.205. If the cogeneration facility is a new qualifying cogeneration facility seeking to sell electric energy pursuant to PURPA section 210, such facility must meet certain additional requirements. 16
U.S.C. 824a3n; accord 18 CFR 292.205d implementing PURPA section 210n, by requiring an additional showing for certain cogeneration facilities that are seeking to sell electric energy pursuant to PURPA section 210.
27 See infra note 53.
28 16 U.S.C. 824a3n1Aiii.

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175 FERC 61,050 at PP 1, 3, 7, 1011.
CFR 292.205d; see also 18 CFR
292.205d4 For purposes of paragraphs d1
and 2 of this section, a new cogeneration facility of 5 MW or smaller will be presumed to satisfy the requirements of those paragraphs.. That presumption for 5 MW or smaller facilities is a rebuttable presumption, though.
Revised Regulations Governing Small Power Production and Cogeneration Facilities, Order No.
671, 114 FERC 61,102, at PP 26, 60, order on rehg, Order No. 671A, 115 FERC 61,225 2006.
31 FuelCell Energy Comments at 5, 7.
32 Id. at 6.
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