- Email: [email protected]
processor to major gas utility
increase the demand and hence further increase the price of platinum,' commented Robert K. Lifton, Medis' chairman/CEO. 'We expect that eliminating the use of platinum as a component of the catalyst for the cathode would reduce the cost of making our fuel cell when it comes to market by an estimated 20%.' More Energy is also focusing on elimination of platinum from the anode catalyst. The aim is to reduce the fuel cell's cost to make it very attractive both in price and performance compared with rechargeable batteries presently used in portable electronic devices. Medis has also completed its recent rights offering, of 3.5 million shares at US$2.00 per share. The net proceeds will be used for working capital, including the continued development of the DLE/M fuel cell technology. Contact: More EnergyLtd, 14 ShabaziStreet, PO Box
132,Yehud56101, Israel.Tel:+972 3 632 2130, Fax: +972 3 632 1671, Email:[email protected], www.medisel.com Or contact: MedisTechnologiesLtd, 805 Third Avenue, 15th Floor,NewYork, NY 10022, USA.Tel: +I 212 935 8484, Fax:+I 212 935 9216, www.medistechnologies.com
Boost for Imperial spinout Ceres In the UK, Imperial College and Nikko Principal Investments Ltd have signed a £20m (US$28m) deal to accelerate the development of spin-out companies set up by Imperial College Innovations, the college's technology transfer company. One of the first spin-outs to benefit from the co-investment deal is Ceres Power Ltd, a technology development company specializing in intermediatetemperature SOFCs. Nikko, via its new subsidiary NPI Ventures, will benefit from the opportunity to co-invest in Imperial spin-out companies at an early stage. So far Imperial College Innovations has spun-out 53 companies, and will continue to lead the process of exploiting the college's intellectual property. Ceres Power was set up last year by a worldclass academic team drawn from Imperial's Department of Materials and the T.H. Huxley School of Environment, Earth Sciences & Engineering, with the intellectual property transferred to Ceres. The company has just closed an initial funding round from investors including Nikko, and will use the funds to complete the next three years of its development program before tackling the distributed power market.
Fuel Cells Bulletin No. 44
The company's technical breakthrough is in reducing the operating temperature of SOFCs from 800°C to 550°C. This has profound implications for the materials that can be used lowering costs while improving robustness, speed of response, and retaining the fuel flexibility of high-temperature fuel cells. The product will initially be developed in the 1-25 kWe range, serving markets such as micro combined heat and power, uninterruptible power supplies and auxiliary power units. Nikko Principal Investments is the European principal finance arm of the major Japanese securities house Nikko Cordial Corporation, and is one of the leading principal finance investors in Europe. Contact: Brian Graves,Imperial CollegeInnovations
Ltd, 47 Prince'sGate, Exhibition Road,LondonSW7 2QA, UK.Tel:+44 20 7594 6598, Email: [email protected] [email protected], www.icinnovations.co.uk
DCH ships integrated fuel cell/processor to major gas utility California-based DCH Technology has shipped a 5 kWe PEM fuel cell system running on natural gas to a new customer, only identified as a world leader in the storage and distribution of natural gas in nearly two dozen countries. The fuel cell will be integrated with a fuel processor designed and delivered by Illinoisbased UOP LLC. The order represents the third fuel cell shipped by DCH for integration with a UOP fuel processor within the last three months. 'Our relationship with UOP continues to be highly beneficial to both companies and to our customers, who gain from the planned integration of our own and UOP's outstanding fuel processing technology,' said John Donohue, president/CEO of DCH. 'At the start of the year we laid out our strategy of focusing on the nearest-term applications of fuel cells, which we believe includes the major energy utilities. These three integrated systems underscore the commitment of the new DCH management team to say what we will do and then do what we say.' DCH manufactures hydrogen PEM fuel cells and solid-state hydrogen-specific sensing systems, and also provides hydrogen-specific safety services. UOP is a leading developer of fuel processor technology and an international supplier and licensor of process technology,
@
NEWS catalysts and services to the refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries. Contact: DCHTechnologyInc, 24832Avenue Rockefeller,Valencia,CA 91355, USA.Tel:+1 661 775 8120, Fax:+1 661 257 9398, www.dcht.com
Commercialization, demonstration projects in Connecticut The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF) has announced the finalists in a program to stimulate development and commercialization of fuel cell technology. The announcement marked the official kick-off of the five-year program. Connecticut is the first of the 14 deregulated American states to launch a fuel cell initiative of this magnitude. The projects - representing collaboration among private- and public-sector businesses were selected from 31 proposals. Each project will potentially stimulate R&D and commercialization, while providing highly visible sites to demonstrate the use of fuel cell energy generation. The program has a 2002 project budget of approximately US$8 million; finalists will also be making substantial financial contributions to their projects. The finalists include a demonstration project at Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, featuring a 25 kWe integrated SOFC/reformer system being developed by Massachusetts-based Ztek Corporation; a 50 MWe fuel cell power plant in Fairfield County, used to power a compressor station and provide excess power to the grid; fuel cells supplied by UTC Fuel Cells to be installed at the State of Connecticut Department of Information Technology data center in East Hartford, at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, and at the New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority; and two fuel cells supplied by FuelCell Energy to be installed at the Pepperidge Farm Bakery in Bloomfield. Contact: ConnecticutCleanEnergyFund,999 West Street, Rocky Hill, CT06067, USA.Tel:+1 860 563 0015, Fax: +1 860 563 6978, www.ctcleanenergy.com
Fraunhofer micro fuel cell initiative will develop economical series production The goal of the 'Fraunhofer Initiative Micro Fuel Cells' is to develop new solutions for
(~
power supplies for portable electronic devices. Under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, six German and one US-based Fraunhofer institutes have linked up to develop reliable fuel cells which are ready for production. The results of the work were presented at the recent Hannover Messe trade fair in Germany. The institutes involved will contribute their special expertise to the initiative. Several aspects of the development and production of fuel cell systems are being investigated, including simulation and characterization of fuel cells as well as development and control of the entire system. In addition, aspects of materials technology, production and assembly will be investigated, and micro-valves will be developed for the hydrogen supply. 'The bonding technology, without screws using only adhesives, is one of the new developments that we are presenting in Hannover,' explained Christopher Hebling, head of the department of energy technology at Fraunhofer ISE. The researchers demonstrated the automated production of fuel cell stacks at the fair, with the help of a small assembly. Other new items are the bipolar plates made from conductive polymers, fully integrated operational control, and thermal coupling of the metal hydride containers and the fuel cell. As well as showing an improved prototype miniature fuel cell system to supply power to a DV-camcorder, the researchers also unveiled a notebook PC with a fuel cell system integrated into the housing. 'In addition to the area of consumer production, an interesting field of application for micro fuel cells is the wireless measuring technology, for example environmental sensors or reporting devices for traffic jams,' said Hebling. 'The operation of the system in outdoor applications presents us with exciting new challenges.' Contact: Dr ChristopherHebling,ManagerFraunhoferInitiative for Micro Fuel Cells,Fraunhofer Institute for SolarEnergySystemsISE,Heidenhostrasse 2, D-79110 Freiburg,Germany.Tel:+49 761 4588 5195, Fax:+49 761 4588 9320, Email:[email protected], www.mikrobrennstoffzelle.com Or contact: Dipl.-Ing. UIf Groos, Mikroenergietechnik, FraunhoferISE.Teh+49 761 4588 5202, Fax:+49 761 4588 9320, [email protected], www.mikroenergietechnik.de
New SOFC design reduces material costs A joint R&D group at Siemens in Pittsburgh, USA and Erlangen, Germany has developed a
new design for the company's solid oxide fuel cells, which is claimed to significantly reduce the volume and hence the cost of the materials required to build an industrial-scale SOFC power generation system. In the Siemens Westinghouse tubular SOFC systems, the fuel cell itself is set in a long tube which is closed at one end. At an operating temperature of 950°C, air is fed into these tubes while the outside is flushed with natural gas. Each tube supplies a voltage of 0.65 V and a current of 160 A, and has a surface area of 850 cm 2. To create higher voltages, individual tubes are switched in series. However, this creates voltage losses as the current passes along the tube's circumference. The Pittsburgh and Erlangen laboratories therefore took a fresh approach. The developers believe that the next generation of fuel cells will consist of flat elements into which up to 10 tubes are set side by side. The current travels along a shorter path, which also significantly reduces the internal resistance. Initial tests have confirmed the developers' expectations. Model calculations have shown that the new cell design is able to achieve three times the power density of the existing cell type. This means that both materials and costs can be saved while producing the same amount of power. Contact: SiemensWestinghousePowerCorporation, StationaryFuel Cells,1310 BeulahRoad,Pittsburgh, PA 15235-5098,USA.Tel:+1 412 256 2022, Fax:+1 412 256 1233,www.pg.siemens.com/en/fuelcells Or contact: Dr Hartmut Runge,CorporateTechnology Press Office, SiemensAG, CC P CT,Postfach,D-81730 Mfinchen, Germany.Tel: +49 89 636 49030, Fax:+49 89 636 49220, Email:[email protected]
H Power cogen system for Swedish' green' project New Jersey-based H Power is to deliver a 4.0 kWe cogeneradon fuel cell system to Naps Systems Oy, a leading Finnish solar power system company and a subsidiary of Fortum Corporation. This delivery - due by the summer - will be under the previously announced distribution agreement between H Power and Naps. Naps will in turn deliver the system to Birka Energi, which has a cooperation project with the R&D department of ABB in Sweden to supply an energy system for an environmental information center. H Power's cogeneration system will be installed at the Environmental Information
Fuel Cells Bulletin No. 44
132,Yehud56101, Israel.Tel:+972 3 632 2130, Fax: +972 3 632 1671, Email:[email protected], www.medisel.com Or contact: MedisTechnologiesLtd, 805 Third Avenue, 15th Floor,NewYork, NY 10022, USA.Tel: +I 212 935 8484, Fax:+I 212 935 9216, www.medistechnologies.com
Boost for Imperial spinout Ceres In the UK, Imperial College and Nikko Principal Investments Ltd have signed a £20m (US$28m) deal to accelerate the development of spin-out companies set up by Imperial College Innovations, the college's technology transfer company. One of the first spin-outs to benefit from the co-investment deal is Ceres Power Ltd, a technology development company specializing in intermediatetemperature SOFCs. Nikko, via its new subsidiary NPI Ventures, will benefit from the opportunity to co-invest in Imperial spin-out companies at an early stage. So far Imperial College Innovations has spun-out 53 companies, and will continue to lead the process of exploiting the college's intellectual property. Ceres Power was set up last year by a worldclass academic team drawn from Imperial's Department of Materials and the T.H. Huxley School of Environment, Earth Sciences & Engineering, with the intellectual property transferred to Ceres. The company has just closed an initial funding round from investors including Nikko, and will use the funds to complete the next three years of its development program before tackling the distributed power market.
Fuel Cells Bulletin No. 44
The company's technical breakthrough is in reducing the operating temperature of SOFCs from 800°C to 550°C. This has profound implications for the materials that can be used lowering costs while improving robustness, speed of response, and retaining the fuel flexibility of high-temperature fuel cells. The product will initially be developed in the 1-25 kWe range, serving markets such as micro combined heat and power, uninterruptible power supplies and auxiliary power units. Nikko Principal Investments is the European principal finance arm of the major Japanese securities house Nikko Cordial Corporation, and is one of the leading principal finance investors in Europe. Contact: Brian Graves,Imperial CollegeInnovations
Ltd, 47 Prince'sGate, Exhibition Road,LondonSW7 2QA, UK.Tel:+44 20 7594 6598, Email: [email protected] [email protected], www.icinnovations.co.uk
DCH ships integrated fuel cell/processor to major gas utility California-based DCH Technology has shipped a 5 kWe PEM fuel cell system running on natural gas to a new customer, only identified as a world leader in the storage and distribution of natural gas in nearly two dozen countries. The fuel cell will be integrated with a fuel processor designed and delivered by Illinoisbased UOP LLC. The order represents the third fuel cell shipped by DCH for integration with a UOP fuel processor within the last three months. 'Our relationship with UOP continues to be highly beneficial to both companies and to our customers, who gain from the planned integration of our own and UOP's outstanding fuel processing technology,' said John Donohue, president/CEO of DCH. 'At the start of the year we laid out our strategy of focusing on the nearest-term applications of fuel cells, which we believe includes the major energy utilities. These three integrated systems underscore the commitment of the new DCH management team to say what we will do and then do what we say.' DCH manufactures hydrogen PEM fuel cells and solid-state hydrogen-specific sensing systems, and also provides hydrogen-specific safety services. UOP is a leading developer of fuel processor technology and an international supplier and licensor of process technology,
@
NEWS catalysts and services to the refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries. Contact: DCHTechnologyInc, 24832Avenue Rockefeller,Valencia,CA 91355, USA.Tel:+1 661 775 8120, Fax:+1 661 257 9398, www.dcht.com
Commercialization, demonstration projects in Connecticut The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF) has announced the finalists in a program to stimulate development and commercialization of fuel cell technology. The announcement marked the official kick-off of the five-year program. Connecticut is the first of the 14 deregulated American states to launch a fuel cell initiative of this magnitude. The projects - representing collaboration among private- and public-sector businesses were selected from 31 proposals. Each project will potentially stimulate R&D and commercialization, while providing highly visible sites to demonstrate the use of fuel cell energy generation. The program has a 2002 project budget of approximately US$8 million; finalists will also be making substantial financial contributions to their projects. The finalists include a demonstration project at Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, featuring a 25 kWe integrated SOFC/reformer system being developed by Massachusetts-based Ztek Corporation; a 50 MWe fuel cell power plant in Fairfield County, used to power a compressor station and provide excess power to the grid; fuel cells supplied by UTC Fuel Cells to be installed at the State of Connecticut Department of Information Technology data center in East Hartford, at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, and at the New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority; and two fuel cells supplied by FuelCell Energy to be installed at the Pepperidge Farm Bakery in Bloomfield. Contact: ConnecticutCleanEnergyFund,999 West Street, Rocky Hill, CT06067, USA.Tel:+1 860 563 0015, Fax: +1 860 563 6978, www.ctcleanenergy.com
Fraunhofer micro fuel cell initiative will develop economical series production The goal of the 'Fraunhofer Initiative Micro Fuel Cells' is to develop new solutions for
(~
power supplies for portable electronic devices. Under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, six German and one US-based Fraunhofer institutes have linked up to develop reliable fuel cells which are ready for production. The results of the work were presented at the recent Hannover Messe trade fair in Germany. The institutes involved will contribute their special expertise to the initiative. Several aspects of the development and production of fuel cell systems are being investigated, including simulation and characterization of fuel cells as well as development and control of the entire system. In addition, aspects of materials technology, production and assembly will be investigated, and micro-valves will be developed for the hydrogen supply. 'The bonding technology, without screws using only adhesives, is one of the new developments that we are presenting in Hannover,' explained Christopher Hebling, head of the department of energy technology at Fraunhofer ISE. The researchers demonstrated the automated production of fuel cell stacks at the fair, with the help of a small assembly. Other new items are the bipolar plates made from conductive polymers, fully integrated operational control, and thermal coupling of the metal hydride containers and the fuel cell. As well as showing an improved prototype miniature fuel cell system to supply power to a DV-camcorder, the researchers also unveiled a notebook PC with a fuel cell system integrated into the housing. 'In addition to the area of consumer production, an interesting field of application for micro fuel cells is the wireless measuring technology, for example environmental sensors or reporting devices for traffic jams,' said Hebling. 'The operation of the system in outdoor applications presents us with exciting new challenges.' Contact: Dr ChristopherHebling,ManagerFraunhoferInitiative for Micro Fuel Cells,Fraunhofer Institute for SolarEnergySystemsISE,Heidenhostrasse 2, D-79110 Freiburg,Germany.Tel:+49 761 4588 5195, Fax:+49 761 4588 9320, Email:[email protected], www.mikrobrennstoffzelle.com Or contact: Dipl.-Ing. UIf Groos, Mikroenergietechnik, FraunhoferISE.Teh+49 761 4588 5202, Fax:+49 761 4588 9320, [email protected], www.mikroenergietechnik.de
New SOFC design reduces material costs A joint R&D group at Siemens in Pittsburgh, USA and Erlangen, Germany has developed a
new design for the company's solid oxide fuel cells, which is claimed to significantly reduce the volume and hence the cost of the materials required to build an industrial-scale SOFC power generation system. In the Siemens Westinghouse tubular SOFC systems, the fuel cell itself is set in a long tube which is closed at one end. At an operating temperature of 950°C, air is fed into these tubes while the outside is flushed with natural gas. Each tube supplies a voltage of 0.65 V and a current of 160 A, and has a surface area of 850 cm 2. To create higher voltages, individual tubes are switched in series. However, this creates voltage losses as the current passes along the tube's circumference. The Pittsburgh and Erlangen laboratories therefore took a fresh approach. The developers believe that the next generation of fuel cells will consist of flat elements into which up to 10 tubes are set side by side. The current travels along a shorter path, which also significantly reduces the internal resistance. Initial tests have confirmed the developers' expectations. Model calculations have shown that the new cell design is able to achieve three times the power density of the existing cell type. This means that both materials and costs can be saved while producing the same amount of power. Contact: SiemensWestinghousePowerCorporation, StationaryFuel Cells,1310 BeulahRoad,Pittsburgh, PA 15235-5098,USA.Tel:+1 412 256 2022, Fax:+1 412 256 1233,www.pg.siemens.com/en/fuelcells Or contact: Dr Hartmut Runge,CorporateTechnology Press Office, SiemensAG, CC P CT,Postfach,D-81730 Mfinchen, Germany.Tel: +49 89 636 49030, Fax:+49 89 636 49220, Email:[email protected]
H Power cogen system for Swedish' green' project New Jersey-based H Power is to deliver a 4.0 kWe cogeneradon fuel cell system to Naps Systems Oy, a leading Finnish solar power system company and a subsidiary of Fortum Corporation. This delivery - due by the summer - will be under the previously announced distribution agreement between H Power and Naps. Naps will in turn deliver the system to Birka Energi, which has a cooperation project with the R&D department of ABB in Sweden to supply an energy system for an environmental information center. H Power's cogeneration system will be installed at the Environmental Information
Fuel Cells Bulletin No. 44