MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--PolyFuel, the leader in engineered membranes for fuel cells, today announced that Anthony Kucernak, PhD has been appointed to the company's Technical Advisory Board, joining Dr. John Appleby and Dr. Robert Savinell. The board is focused on developing technical insights about fuel cells, the role of the fuel cell membranes and systems, and how PolyFuel can optimally contribute to moving the industry forward.

"In order to serve our growing list of customers, we have two key agendas as a company," said Jim Balcom, president and CEO of PolyFuel. "Continuing to build the commercialization of our membrane technology and increasing our technology leadership. We are privileged to have Dr. Kucernak join our team to help contribute to those initiatives."

Dr. Appleby has over 30 years of experience in fuel cells, has authored over 200 papers, four books and was the editor of "The Fuel Cell Handbook, 4th Edition" (Van Nostrand Reinhold). He is presently professor of Applied Electrochemistry at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Savinell is Dean of Engineering at Case Western University and George S. Dively Professor of Chemical Engineering. Savinell has approximately 20 years of experience in fuel cells, including the development of a novel membrane for stationary fuel cell applications.

Dr. Kucernak is currently head of the Solid Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Research Group and Reader in Physical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London and brings ten years of experience of studying fuel cells, particularly Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC).

"PolyFuel is making important contributions to the fuel cell industry," said Kucernak. "Many companies are already benefiting from its breakthroughs and I am pleased to be able to take part."

In April 2005, PolyFuel announced a third major advance in the company's leading edge membrane technology: a "hot bondable" version of its hydrocarbon membrane for portable applications. This greatly increases the manufacturing flexibility of the material and allowed manufacturers to effectively "drop in" the more desirable membrane into fabrication processes originally designed for older materials.

Moreover, over the past nine months PolyFuel has grown its target customer list to seventeen of the world's leading portable fuel cell system developers, eleven of which are major consumer electronics manufacturers. Fifteen of the seventeen are testing or have tested the PolyFuel membrane material. Of the fifteen, ten have completed their evaluation testing and all ten have gone on to purchase PolyFuel's membrane, said Balcom.

About PolyFuel

PolyFuel is a world leader in engineered membranes that provide significantly improved performance in fuel cells for portable electronic and automotive applications. The state of the art of fuel cells is essentially that of the membrane, and PolyFuel's leading-edge, hydrocarbon-based membranes enable a new generation of fuel cells that for the first time can deliver on the long-awaited promise of clean, long-running, and cost-effective portable power.

PolyFuel's unmatched capability to rapidly translate the system-level requirements of fuel cell designers and manufacturers into engineered polymer nano-architectures has led to its introduction of best-in-class hydrocarbon membranes for both portable direct methanol fuel cells and for automotive hydrogen fuel cells. Such capability - based on PolyFuel's over 140 combined years of fuel cell experience, world-class polymer nano-architects, and a fundamental patent position covering more than 15 different inventions - also makes PolyFuel an essential development partner and supplier to any company seeking to advance the state of the art in fuel cells. Polymer electrolyte fuel cells built with PolyFuel membranes can be smaller, lighter, longer-running, more efficient, less expensive and more robust than those made with other membrane materials.

PolyFuel was spun out of SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) in 1999, after 14 years of applied membrane research. The company is based in Mountain View, California, and is publicly listed on the AIM stock exchange in London. Original investors include Mayfield, Ventures West, CDP Capital - Private Equity, Technology Partners, Intel Capital, Chrysalix Energy, Conduit Ventures, KTB Ventures, Hotung Venture Partners, Yasuda Enterprise Development, and BiNEXT, a part of the Daesung Group.