NEWS

10Fuel Cells Bulletin September 2004

Protonex wins militarydevelopment contract

The US Army Research Office (ARO)has awarded Massachusetts-based

Protonex Technology $1m to acceleratedevelopment of its NGen™ hydrogen-air and direct methanol fuel cell stacksfor portable military applications.

Initial trials of the Protonex stacks in Army,Air Force and Navy projects have producedvery positive comments about both the perfor-mance and price of the units, according to DrRichard Paur, chief of ARO’s Advanced EnergyConversion program. The new award will allowProtonex to continue development to makethese units commercially viable.

Protonex has been working closely with themilitary since 2001 to develop long-durationpower solutions for portable applications. It isin the process of commercializing a family ofproducts in the power range from 10 to 1000We. The company is also developing fuel cellproducts for remote off-grid applications.

Contact: Protonex Technology Corporation, South-borough, Massachusetts, USA. Tel: +1 508 490 9960,www.protonex.com

Smart Fuel Cell unveilshigher-power RV fuel cell

German-based SFC Smart Fuel Cellwill showcase its new SFC A50 fuel

cell at the Caravan Salon Düsseldorf (27 August to 5 September). The 50 Wesystem weighs just 7 kg, and is anattractive power supply for recreationalvehicles (RVs) and mobile homes, pro-viding a daily output of 100 Ah even in winter, when solar cells struggle.

The SFC A50 is about the size of an attachécase. Its compactness and light weight alloweasy retrofitting and integration into vehicleinteriors. Power supply is automatic via thecharge controller, which activates the fuel cellwhen necessary to recharge the main battery.The unit will supply power for five to ten daysfrom a single 5 liter methanol fuel cartridge.

SFC has developed the A50 fuel cell in col-laboration with RV builder Hymer. At lastyear’s show the partners unveiled the SFC A25,a 25 We fuel cell system. ‘The positive responseour predecessor product SFC A25 produced atthe Caravan Salon 2003 underlined the signifi-cance of new power supply concepts for RVsand the strong demand for such products,’ saysManfred Stefener, SFC’s managing director.

Contact: SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG, Brunnthal-Nord,Germany. Tel: +49 89 607 45460,www.smartfuelcell.com

DOE awards for smallbusiness fuel cell R&D

Several fuel cell projects have beenchosen for Small Business

Innovation Research (SBIR) and SmallBusiness Technology Transfer (STTR)awards in the US Department ofEnergy’s latest funding round.

Phase I of both programs explores the feasi-bility of innovative concepts with awards up to$100 000 each for about nine months, whilePhase II is the principal R&D effort, withawards up to $750 000 over a two-year period.In the STTR program, for projects in bothphases, at least 40% of the work must be per-formed by the small business, and at least 30%by a non-profit research institution such as fed-erally funded R&D centers (e.g. DOE nationallabs), universities etc.

Phase I awards (mainly SBIR) were made to:

• Xradia (Concord, CA) for high-resolution3D X-ray tomography for inspection ofSOFCs, which will be capable of character-izing SOFC components for use in modelvalidation and failure analysis.

• Advanced Fluid Technologies (Whitehall,PA) to study complex coolant fluid for PEMfuel cell systems, to address the major tech-nical hurdles inherent in existing coolants.

• Giner (Newton, MA) for work on a high-power-density PEM fuel cell stack, for use inlightweight portable applications.

• Pacific Fuel Cell (Tustin, CA) to developnanocomposite membranes for high-tem-perature PEM fuel cells, which can retainhigh proton conductivity and mechanicalstrength at elevated temperatures, forenhanced power output. The University ofCalifornia, Riverside is also participating inthis STTR project.

• T/J Technologies (Ann Arbor, MI) to workon a low-cost, high-performance PEM fuel cell based on a poly(phenylenesulfide-phenyleneamine) (PPSA) membrane.

• Primet Precision Materials (Clarksville,MD) to study novel nanoscale intermetallicfuel cell catalyst materials and processing.

Larger, longer-term Phase II awards (all SBIR)were made to:

• Farasis Energy (Alameda, CA) to work on anovel, combinational approach to developcathode catalysts for fuel cells, which will

accelerate the search for lower-cost fuel cellcatalysts, through identifying promisingfamilies of complex catalyst systems.

• NuVant Systems (Chicago, IL) to studyimproved PEM fuel cell cathode oxygenreduction catalysts using combinatorialmethods.

• Nanosonic (Christiansburg, VA) to developnew proton-exchange membranes withimproved methanol permeability for DMFCapplications.

• Ceramatec (Salt Lake City, UT) to work onadvanced net-shape insulation for SOFCs,which should help to achieve both perfor-mance and cost targets for commercializa-tion of SOFCs.

QuestAir hydrogenpurification for BCHydrogen Highway

BC-based QuestAir Technologies issupplying hydrogen purification

technology to a vehicle fueling andpower generation project in NorthVancouver, part of the BC HydrogenHighway™. The company will providea QuestAir H-3200 hydrogen purifica-tion system to convert raw hydrogenfrom a North Vancouver sodium chlo-rate plant into high-purity hydrogensuitable for use in fuel cell vehicles.

‘By-product hydrogen from existing industri-al processes such as sodium chlorate plants hasthe potential to provide an important supply oflow-cost hydrogen to support the commercial-ization of fuel cell vehicles,’ explains JonathanWilkinson, president/CEO of QuestAir.

QuestAir is one of six companies in a consor-tium developing an integrated hydrogen fuelingand demonstration project in North Vancouver[FCB, August]. Sustainable Development Tech-nology Canada (SDTC) is contributing morethan C$5.8 million (US$4.4m) towards theestimated C$18m (US$24m) total cost of theproject, which will be fully operational in 2005.

The project will become one of seven fuelingand demonstration depots on the BC HydrogenHighway, announced in April [FCB, June].Targeted for full implementation by the 2010Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games inVancouver and Whistler, the highway will show-case sustainable transportation, allowing visitorsto travel in hydrogen-powered vehicles betweenVictoria, Vancouver and Whistler.

Contact: QuestAir Technologies Inc, Burnaby, BC,Canada. Tel: +1 604 454 1134, www.questairinc.com