The full breakdown, or conversion, of ethanol ensures excellent power output and
high efficiency from an ethanol powered fuel cell. Previous attempts by the
industry to use ethanol as a fuel, even using expensive platinum catalysts, had
failed to demonstrate that the catalyst could break the double carbon bond in
the ethanol molecule - thereby restricting the efficiency to one third of the
available energy in the fuel.

Acta therefore invited the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the CNR
Institute at Florence to study Acta's catalyst and to show that full conversion
was taking place. Both Universities took different approaches to the study and
independently confirmed the breaking of the double carbon bond and the complete
conversion of the ethanol to water and carbon dioxide. Unlike existing fuel cell
technologies, this carbon dioxide is not a greenhouse emission as it comes from
bio-mass and not from a fossil fuel. These studies will be the subject of
academic papers and presentations later in the year.

These studies represent third party confirmation that HYPERMEC can deliver a
unique catalytic performance in the challenging conditions of a room
temperature, self-breathing fuel cell. Ethanol fuel cells are ideally suited for
the portable electronics industry and remove many of the major barriers to mass
commercialisation.

Paolo Bert, Chief Executive, said "We were pleased to have our own research
verified by these two important academic institutions. As expected, we have
confirmed that HYPERMEC can enable for the first time the use of safe and
practical ethanol to make fuel cells easier to distribute and use in the global
consumer market."

The Fuel Cell Industry

Fuel Cells
Fuel cells are electrochemical devices which generate electricity from a fuel 
(typically hydrogen or methanol in the past) and air producing just water and 
sometimes carbon dioxide as exhaust. Fuel cells can be used to replace power 
supplies for portable electronic devices as well as the internal combustion engine 
and power generators for domestic use. They are widely seen as a solution to the 
power inefficiency of batteries, long term limitations in fossil fuel supply and 
to managing the problem of greenhouse gases. Major electronics and automotive 
companies as well as governments are spending billions of dollars per annum to 
make fuel cells a reality in consumer markets.

Portable fuel cells
Portable fuel cells are those designed to replace lithium-ion batteries for mobile 
phones, laptops and other portable electronic devices, all of which are increasingly 
hampered by the limitations of battery life. These fuel cells are generally not 
powered by hydrogen gas, which is restricted in use and hard to safely store and 
use, but by a hydrocarbon liquid, typically methanol.

Direct Alcohol Fuel Cells (DAFC)
These are fuel cells that have been powered by methanol in the past.  Methanol is 
toxic and is usually a fossil fuel derivative.  Ethanol, which may replace it 
thanks to Acta's new technology, is safe and practical to use.  Ethanol is also 
made from renewable sources, making the fuel cell more environmentally friendly 
as the carbon dioxide produced in use comes from the existing carbon cycle and 
does not count as a greenhouse gas.

Barriers for fuel cell commercialisation
Fuel cells have made and continue to make great strides towards commercialisation. 
Key remaining barriers are partly driven by the catalysts, which have to date 
contained costly and scarce platinum,:

   • preventing products from reaching their commercial cost targets
   • requiring fuel cells to use impractical methanol as a direct hydrocarbon
    fuel

The Acta technology

Acta
Acta is an Anglo-Italian company which floated on AIM in October 2005. Acta has 
recently completed its manufacturing and research facility near Pisa in Italy and 
is now rolling out its HYPERMEC catalysts to the global market for evaluation.

HYPERMEC Catalyst
Acta has developed a platinum-free catalyst called HYPERMEC. HYPERMEC is made 
from cheap and abundant materials, dramatically lowering the cost of industrialising 
fuel cells and electrolysers. HYPERMEC catalysts work with anionic exchange 
membranes which are significantly cheaper than the current cationic membranes, 
further reducing the cost of the fuel cell or electrolyser system. HYPERMEC also 
allows the use for the first time of a whole range of hydrocarbon fuels, including 
ethanol.

The University Studies

University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Professor Paul Christensen and Dr Wen Feng Lin of the University of Newcastle 
upon Tyne conducted the study using an electrochemical in-situ FTIR spectroscopy 
analysis of the ethanol electro oxidation reaction on the catalyst surface. The 
study showed the formation of carbon dioxide only with no other intermediate 
chemicals being detected. University of Newcastle upon Tyne is one of the UK's 
leading academic centres for research into hydrogen technologies, including fuel 
cells.

Consiglio Nationale di Ricerca (CNR), Florence
Dr Francesco Vizza and Dr Giuliano Giambastiani from the CNR conducted a study 
using gas chromatography and NMR analysis of the fuel residues. Again, they were 
able to detect no evidence of the intermediate products which would be evident 
in the event of only partial conversion of the ethanol.