“CFCL is confident that its fuel cell technology can now be applied to another fuel,
namely ethanol. This means that our design has even more applications, and can
achieve even better environmental outcomes delivering similar high levels of energy
efficiency and constant energy supply” stated Dr Karl Foger, Chief Technology Officer for Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited.

This statement follows the meeting last week of CFCL’s specialist Technical
Committee at which they reviewed results from a preliminary feasibility study which
revealed that ethanol could be made into a fuel mix suitable for CFCL’s fuel cell.
CFCL has also undertaken some preliminary modelling which has shown that the
energy efficiency would be similar to a fuel cell using natural gas, of up to 50%. Coal
fired power stations currently achieve comparatively low energy efficiency of between 25 – 30% and emit substantial volumes of greenhouse gasses in the process. “These preliminary findings are significant as they show that CFCL’s unique design of ceramic fuel cells is flexible in being adapted to use a number of fuel sources” said Dr Allen Conduit, CEO of CFCL.

“With this development, we recognise that our fuel cells producing electricity from
ethanol will be ideal for crop farmers, those industries generating plant waste, and
communities without access to reliable gas or electricity” stated Dr Conduit.
CFCL is now looking to advance these preliminary findings with further exploration
and practical studies in partnership with investors and relevant industries to
develop this renewable power generator.

Most fuel cell designs are limited to only using pure hydrogen as a fuel source.
Producing hydrogen is complex and expensive as it requires special processing,
storage and currently has no established distribution system. Conversely natural gas, which is currently used by CFCL’s fuel cells to create electricity, is already widely available and distributed around the world and relatively inexpensive for customers. Ethanol is a renewable clean fuel produced from fermented plant material. Most ethanol in the world is produced from sugar or starch, with now increased interest in volume production on farms from cellulose, such as wheat chaff and corn plants.