Fuel Cell Works Supplemental News Page

The
U.S. Commerce Department’s Advanced Technology Program today announced
32 new cost-sharing awards for research on highly innovative industrial
technologies. A total of 43 companies, including seven joint ventures,
are involved in the new projects, which were chosen on the basis of difficulty,
technical innovation and the potential for significant benefits to the
nation's economy. The 32 new ATP projects span a broad
range of key technology areas. Among the areas targeted are: new energy
technologies for oil exploration and for fuel cells, new medical diagnostic
and therapeutic technologies, improvements in electronics and automobile
manufacturing and an improved computer interface for the severely disabled.
The new awards represent a total of up to $80.1 million in ATP funding
and an industry share of up to $56.9 million, if all projects are carried
through to completion. 

 

Three of the 32 awards went to accelerate
progress in fuel cells. These three awards represent a total of $ 26.0
million of new fuel cell R&D that will be initiated with ATP contributing
$13.6 million. The 3 awards went to:
1.Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc.
(Houston, Texas), Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells, Inc., Motorola, Inc. and
Celanese Ventures 
"Free Standing" Single-Wall Carbon-Nanotube
Fuel Cell Electrode

Develop a novel, free-standing single-wall
carbon nanotube electrode assembly containing an immobilized noble-metal
catalyst to enable compact proton exchange membrane fuel cells with superior
performance and longer lifetimes while simplifying manufacturing. 

Project duration: 10/1/2004 - 9/30/2007 

Total project (est.): $7,379,707 

Requested ATP funds: $3,616,054 
2.Corning Incorporated (Corning,
N.Y.) and ENrG, Inc. (Buffalo, N.Y.)  
Scalable Planar Solid-Oxide Fuel
Cell Technology for Beyond 200kW

Develop a thin, large area planar
solid oxide fuel cell based on innovative ceramics, device design, and
array architecture, for enterprise-level primary and cogeneration distributed
power that can cycle repeatedly and be more easily fabricated into 200kW
power units. 

Project duration: 10/1/2004 - 9/30/2007 

Total project (est.): $16,030,864 

Requested ATP funds: $7,996,219

 

3.NexTech Materials, Ltd. (Lewis
Center, Ohio) with NASA Glenn Research Center and  SOFCo-EFS Holdings
LLC 

 

High-Power-Density Solid Oxide Fuel
Cells for Aerospace Applications

Develop a lightweight solid oxide
fuel cell that offers five times the power density of the current state
of the art, as well

as greater durability and flexibility
of operation, for use in auxiliary power units for aircraft. 
For further details on these projects,
go to the ATP website at www.atp.nist.gov.

 