Fuel cell developer AFC Energy announces major technology milestone and operational update

13 October 2009

Low cost alkaline fuel cell developer AFC Energy has completed a field test of its first generation, non-platinum electrodes at AkzoNobel’s chlor-alkali plant in Bitterfeld, Germany.

During the test AFC Energy’s fuel cell system fed electricity into AkzoNobel’s grid on a par with previous field tests using platinum based electrodes. Following the installation of the company’s fuel cell system at AkzoNobel’s Bitterfeld plant in Germany, the company completed a field test of its electrodes in its fuel cell system. This field test included exporting electricity to the customer’s on-site grid and demonstrating automated operation of the fuel cell and remote monitoring of the fuel cell performance.

The company has recently filed applications for a further four patents as part of the measures to protect its core intellectual property. Its intellectual property strategy centres on protecting developments made to its electrodes.

An upgrade to AFC Energy’s development facility is now close to completion, which is aimed at reducing the time taken to develop and optimise electrode materials and enable the company to rapidly manufacture sufficient electrodes for its requirements. The upgrade reduced the time taken to prepare, manufacture, test and review the new electrodes to days and the company now has the capability to manufacture up to 1000 electrodes per day.

The company has also made several new appointments to its operational staff including production manager and fuel cell scientist, Dr Richard Dawson, who joins the team from Ceres Power where he held the position of senior engineer.

Ian Balchin, AFC Energy’s managing director, said, ‘This successful testing of our fuel cell system using proprietary, lower cost, electrodes demonstrates that the AFC Energy has taken the next step in the development of a truly low cost, commercially viable, alkali fuel cell system.’

He added, ‘Our sights are very much set on our 50KW system which will become the building block for multi-megawatt installations. I particularly welcome the new appointment of fuel cell scientist, Dr Richard Dawson to work on the 50KW system. With our strengthened team and upgraded development capability, we believe we shall be able to develop our proprietary electrodes faster and at a lower cost than any other company. We now expect to have our 50KW system available for field trials as early as the first calendar quarter of 2011 and our smaller system to be available during 2010.’

The upgraded development facility and recruitment of additional staff has enabled the company to accelerate development of its large fuel cell system which is designed to work up to 50KW. The company expects the 50KW system to be ready for field trials in the first calendar quarter of 2011.

AFC Energy’s core focus remains on delivering commercially viable fuel cell systems to the chlor-alkali industry for stationary power generation from its surplus hydrogen, which is generated as a by-product. The company is continuing to target additional markets for the efficient generation of electricity from hydrogen, including the waste to energy market where hydrogen can be liberated from organic waste.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: energy efficiency

This story was published on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Europe, companies, energy efficiency. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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