- Email: [email protected]
ACAL Energy raises £3.3m venture finance
NEWS The research groups want to determine whether ethanol can be reformed to produce hydrogen. If possible, they will build on the results to explore how direct electrochemical oxidation of ethanol might work. The research is expected to result in a new family of materials. ‘This is fundamental research,’ says Atanassov. ‘Now, if that can be wrapped into a portable cell, that would be say an ethanol fuel cell for cellular phones. If that could be wrapped in a stationary fuel cell, it could be in situ power generation in homes.’ Contact: Dr Plamen Atanassov, Center for Emerging Energy Technologies, Department of Chemical & Nuclear Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Tel: +1 505 277 2640, Email: [email protected], Web: www-chne.unm.edu
commercialization
ACAL Energy raises £3.3m venture finance
U
K-based PEM fuel cell developer ACAL Energy has successfully completed a £3.3 million (US$4.9m) fundraising round. The funds will be used to take the company to the next stage of development of its innovative low-cost fuel cell systems, based on its novel FlowCath® platinum-free cathode technology. The company says that FlowCath will replace expensive precious metal catalysts found in conventional fuel cells, with a proprietary low-cost liquid catalyst. This also provides significant durability and reliability benefits, through system simplification and the elimination of the most common failure mechanisms found in standard fuel cells. ACAL plans to introduce a 1 kW demonstration system later this year. The fundraising was led by CT Investment Partners. All the existing venture capital investors – Rising Stars Growth Fund (RSGF), NorthStar Equity Investors, Porton Capital and Synergis Technologies – invested in the new round, and are joined by new investments from Solvay SA – which has invested £1.25m ($1.9m) to take an equity stake of 13% in ACAL – and a leading Japanese corporation. ‘We are very fortunate in this difficult investment climate to have the backing of knowledgeable and experienced investors such as Carbon Trust Investments and Solvay,’ says Dr SB Cha, CEO of ACAL. ‘FlowCath will enable fuel cells to capture a significant share of the new energy production mosaic alongside solar, wind and other forms of clean energy generation. Our world-class development capabilities and
February 2009
partnerships with leading companies in Europe and Asia will enable us to deliver this technology to the market in the very near future.’ Jonathan Bryers, partner at CT Investment Partners, adds: ‘We backed the ACAL Energy technology proposition from an early stage, and have been impressed by what we believe is a highly innovative and effective solution to two key barriers facing the fuel cell sector: cost and reliability.’ ACAL Energy’s new fuel cell technology is intended to enable low-cost and highly reliable fuel cell systems for stationary and remote power, home cogeneration, and automotive and mobile applications. The company was founded in August 2004 by FlowCath’s inventor, Dr Andrew Creeth. Contact: ACAL Energy Ltd, Runcorn, Cheshire, UK. Tel: +44 1928 511581, www.acalenergy.co.uk
CMR to focus more closely on hybrid DMFCs, return cash to investors
U
K-based CMR Fuel Cells has announced a proposal to effect a return to shareholders of a portion of its cash, and cancel its admission to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London. The company will also reduce its cost base in order to allow it to continue its fuel cell development program. Under the proposals, a tender offer will be made, under which shareholders will be able to tender all or a portion of their shares to be purchased by the company at 20p (US$0.29) per share. Shareholders who do not wish to tender their shares will receive a special dividend in the region of 17p per share. The limit on the total amount to be returned to shareholders is expected to be in the region of £3.8 million ($5.5m). The company’s board has decided that it should rationalize its business, and focus on the development of hybrid DMFC power supplies for portable applications. As a result of such concentration of effort, the board is in the process of streamlining the company’s business so as to reduce costs and generate additional savings. CMR has made significant recent commercial and technical progress. Last fall the company signed an exclusive joint development agreement with a leading Asian original design manufacturer [FCB, January 2009]. The companies will collaborate in the design and development
IN BRIEF India opens first hydrogen fueling station Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) recently opened the country’s first hydrogen dispensing station, in the New Delhi suburb of Dwarka. The hydrogen will be generated using an electrolyzer, and will be mixed with compressed natural gas (CNG) for use in a group of test vehicles comprising three-wheelers and passenger vehicles, mainly drawn from the government’s fleet. IOC says that the fueling station was set up at a cost of Rs5 crore (US$1m), with equal project funding from the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy and the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. The report adds that IOC has apparently been in discussions with General Motors India to use the latter’s Equinox fuel cell car – currently undergoing validation in the US, in Chevrolet’s Project Driveway – as a possible test vehicle in India in the coming months. Sapporo, Kajima combine microbial fuel cell with hydrogen from sludge In Japan, Sapporo Breweries has developed a way to turn waste at food processing plants into hydrogen for fuel cells, harnessing bacterial degradation. Now Tokyo-based Kajima Corporation is taking the concept a step further, by developing a microbial fuel cell that generates electricity directly from a feedstock of sewage sludge. In Kajima’s fuel cell, the electrodes are coated with microorganisms normally found in wastewater and rice paddies. These microbes release hydrogen as they metabolize the sludge, and this hydrogen reacts with oxygen to generate electricity. A small prototype fuel cell developed with the University of Tokyo can apparently generate 130 W of electricity per m3 of hydrogen. The system’s performance needs to be improved for practical use, but Kajima expects to have a practical version of the technology ready by around 2020, according to a Nikkei report. Meanwhile, Sapporo Breweries is closer to commercialization of a hydrogen-generating plant for food factories, hotels and other sites with large amounts of food waste. Testing is under way at the Takaki Bakery bread factory in Hiroshima. Unused dough is placed in a tank and decomposed by microorganisms to generate hydrogen. The system can generate 25 000 liters of hydrogen from 125 kg of ‘waste’ dough. Combining this setup with a system for producing methane would provide enough energy to meet the daily needs of five average households. Sapporo Breweries apparently plans to scale up the system and begin sales to food processing plants and hotels as early as next year. In the medium term, Sapporo will also consider entering the consumer market with a system that allows households to turn garbage into hydrogen for residential fuel cells, says the report.
Fuel Cells Bulletin
7
commercialization
ACAL Energy raises £3.3m venture finance
U
K-based PEM fuel cell developer ACAL Energy has successfully completed a £3.3 million (US$4.9m) fundraising round. The funds will be used to take the company to the next stage of development of its innovative low-cost fuel cell systems, based on its novel FlowCath® platinum-free cathode technology. The company says that FlowCath will replace expensive precious metal catalysts found in conventional fuel cells, with a proprietary low-cost liquid catalyst. This also provides significant durability and reliability benefits, through system simplification and the elimination of the most common failure mechanisms found in standard fuel cells. ACAL plans to introduce a 1 kW demonstration system later this year. The fundraising was led by CT Investment Partners. All the existing venture capital investors – Rising Stars Growth Fund (RSGF), NorthStar Equity Investors, Porton Capital and Synergis Technologies – invested in the new round, and are joined by new investments from Solvay SA – which has invested £1.25m ($1.9m) to take an equity stake of 13% in ACAL – and a leading Japanese corporation. ‘We are very fortunate in this difficult investment climate to have the backing of knowledgeable and experienced investors such as Carbon Trust Investments and Solvay,’ says Dr SB Cha, CEO of ACAL. ‘FlowCath will enable fuel cells to capture a significant share of the new energy production mosaic alongside solar, wind and other forms of clean energy generation. Our world-class development capabilities and
February 2009
partnerships with leading companies in Europe and Asia will enable us to deliver this technology to the market in the very near future.’ Jonathan Bryers, partner at CT Investment Partners, adds: ‘We backed the ACAL Energy technology proposition from an early stage, and have been impressed by what we believe is a highly innovative and effective solution to two key barriers facing the fuel cell sector: cost and reliability.’ ACAL Energy’s new fuel cell technology is intended to enable low-cost and highly reliable fuel cell systems for stationary and remote power, home cogeneration, and automotive and mobile applications. The company was founded in August 2004 by FlowCath’s inventor, Dr Andrew Creeth. Contact: ACAL Energy Ltd, Runcorn, Cheshire, UK. Tel: +44 1928 511581, www.acalenergy.co.uk
CMR to focus more closely on hybrid DMFCs, return cash to investors
U
K-based CMR Fuel Cells has announced a proposal to effect a return to shareholders of a portion of its cash, and cancel its admission to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London. The company will also reduce its cost base in order to allow it to continue its fuel cell development program. Under the proposals, a tender offer will be made, under which shareholders will be able to tender all or a portion of their shares to be purchased by the company at 20p (US$0.29) per share. Shareholders who do not wish to tender their shares will receive a special dividend in the region of 17p per share. The limit on the total amount to be returned to shareholders is expected to be in the region of £3.8 million ($5.5m). The company’s board has decided that it should rationalize its business, and focus on the development of hybrid DMFC power supplies for portable applications. As a result of such concentration of effort, the board is in the process of streamlining the company’s business so as to reduce costs and generate additional savings. CMR has made significant recent commercial and technical progress. Last fall the company signed an exclusive joint development agreement with a leading Asian original design manufacturer [FCB, January 2009]. The companies will collaborate in the design and development
IN BRIEF India opens first hydrogen fueling station Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) recently opened the country’s first hydrogen dispensing station, in the New Delhi suburb of Dwarka. The hydrogen will be generated using an electrolyzer, and will be mixed with compressed natural gas (CNG) for use in a group of test vehicles comprising three-wheelers and passenger vehicles, mainly drawn from the government’s fleet. IOC says that the fueling station was set up at a cost of Rs5 crore (US$1m), with equal project funding from the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy and the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. The report adds that IOC has apparently been in discussions with General Motors India to use the latter’s Equinox fuel cell car – currently undergoing validation in the US, in Chevrolet’s Project Driveway – as a possible test vehicle in India in the coming months. Sapporo, Kajima combine microbial fuel cell with hydrogen from sludge In Japan, Sapporo Breweries has developed a way to turn waste at food processing plants into hydrogen for fuel cells, harnessing bacterial degradation. Now Tokyo-based Kajima Corporation is taking the concept a step further, by developing a microbial fuel cell that generates electricity directly from a feedstock of sewage sludge. In Kajima’s fuel cell, the electrodes are coated with microorganisms normally found in wastewater and rice paddies. These microbes release hydrogen as they metabolize the sludge, and this hydrogen reacts with oxygen to generate electricity. A small prototype fuel cell developed with the University of Tokyo can apparently generate 130 W of electricity per m3 of hydrogen. The system’s performance needs to be improved for practical use, but Kajima expects to have a practical version of the technology ready by around 2020, according to a Nikkei report. Meanwhile, Sapporo Breweries is closer to commercialization of a hydrogen-generating plant for food factories, hotels and other sites with large amounts of food waste. Testing is under way at the Takaki Bakery bread factory in Hiroshima. Unused dough is placed in a tank and decomposed by microorganisms to generate hydrogen. The system can generate 25 000 liters of hydrogen from 125 kg of ‘waste’ dough. Combining this setup with a system for producing methane would provide enough energy to meet the daily needs of five average households. Sapporo Breweries apparently plans to scale up the system and begin sales to food processing plants and hotels as early as next year. In the medium term, Sapporo will also consider entering the consumer market with a system that allows households to turn garbage into hydrogen for residential fuel cells, says the report.
Fuel Cells Bulletin
7