FuelCellsWorks

Brunnthal/Munich, Germany–SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG, technology and market leader for mobile and off-grid power solutions based on fuel cells, is changing its company name to SFC Energy AG with immediate effect. The name change reflects the company’s future positioning as a provider of complete systems for off-grid energy supply. The company has consequently evolved its business model within the last years towards comprehensive off-grid power solutions. Fuel cells remain core technology and components of the whole-product solutions.

„Our experience as pioneer in the commercialisation of fuel cells has shown that customers in many fields do not only need a fuel cell but total solution“, says Dr. Peter Podesser, CEO of SFC Energy AG. „With our strategic direction we put enhanced concentration on integrated system solutions. The change of the company’s name reflects our positioning and underlines the intention to provide whole-product off-grid power solutions to our customers and their specific needs“.

With the introduction of the EFOY ProCube and the SFC Power Manager in the industry and defense markets, SFC has successfully launched initial whole-product solutions. Today, SFC products are applied as hybrid solutions with batteries and solar systems, for example. With this concept SFC offers customers lightweight, silent and flexible off-grid power supply. The company has sold about 19,000 systems for off-grid power supply in leisure, industry, mobility and defense markets. SFC solutions also play a more and more important role in the e-mobility market. Combined heat and power (CHP) with SFC fuel cells offers an attractive solution which eliminates existing limitations of electric vehicles like short-distance range, insufficient winter driving capability, less practical charging times and a missing charging infrastructure. The intelligent combination of battery and fuel cell as hybrid solution enables an environmentally friendly power supply directly onboard the vehicle and generates heat for battery conditioning and car interior. There is no need to recharge the vehicle at an electrical outlet and the vehicle offers high performance in winter and every day use.

More information at www.sfc.com and www.efoy.com.

About SFC Energy AG
SFC Energy AG (www.sfc.com) is market leader in fuel cell technologies for mobile and off-grid power applications serving the leisure, industrial and defense markets. As one of Germany’s technology pioneers, SFC has won numerous innovation awards. SFC has alliances with leading companies in a wide range of industries.  Unlike most other fuel cell manufacturers, who are in the research and development phase or run subsidized demonstration projects, SFC has shipped about 19,000 fully commercial products to industrial and private end users for more than five years, and has created a convenient fuel cartridge supply infrastructure. SFC is DIN ISO 9001:2008 certified. SFC is based in Brunnthal, Germany, and has a sales and technical service office in the U.S. SFC Energy AG is listed in the Prime Standard on the German stock exchange (WKN 756857).

AFC Energy’s (LSE:AFC), low-cost alkaline fuel cells are being considered for use in a new 49MW renewable plant in Tees Valley. The clean energy plant will use advanced gasification technology to convert waste to electricity. The scheme, which is being led by worldwide industrial gas supplier Air Products, will produce enough power for up to 50,000 homes in the region.

The plant will offer the North East an environmentally–friendly energy solution by converting non-recyclable waste into clean electricity. The gasification process produces hydrogen which can be used as a feed stock for AFC Energy’s fuel cell technology, which produces electricity at low-cost and high efficiency.

AFC Energy CEO Ian Balchin commented, ‘AFC Energy is delighted to be to be working with our partners Waste2tricity on this pioneering project in Tees Valley. The plant will allow us to demonstrate how our clean and cost–effective technology can support the conversion of waste into energy. It is another exciting example of the role fuel cells will play in a low carbon future.’

The eagerly anticipated project will potentially create up to 50 permanent jobs, in addition to 500-700 jobs during its three-year construction period. The site, owned by Teesside-based Impetus Waste Management, has been designated as a New Energy and Technology Business Park (NETBP), placing the UK at the forefront of cutting European greenhouse gas emissions.

‘Partnered with projects like this, the alkaline fuel cell offers the first commercially viable transitional technology in the move towards a clean energy generation,’ explained Ian Balchin.

AFC Energy are the world’s leading developers of alkaline fuel cell technology for industrial application. Their innovative approach is gaining momentum across various industries and applications, including chlor-alkaline, waste-to-energy, clean coal and natural gas. The range of major deployment opportunities emerging for the fuel cell are testament to AFC Energy’s keystone role in developing the clean and sustainable power of the future.

Notes to editors

About AFC Energy
AFC Energy is the world’s leading developer of low-cost alkaline fuel cells. AFC Energy’s technology is focused on large-scale industrial applications and the objective of producing the lowest possible unit cost electricity. Their cutting-edge technology has significant implications for decarbonising our economy, ensuring energy security and putting the UK at the forefront of green innovation. www.afcenergy.com

About Waste2Tricity
AFC Energy’s partner Waste2Tricity is a new British venture established to implement the most efficient energy conversion process available using a unique combination of AFC Energy’s alkaline fuel cells with plasma gasification and other existing proven technologies. www.waste2tricity.com

About Air Products
Air Products (NYSE:APD) serves customers in industrial, energy, technology and healthcare markets worldwide with a unique portfolio of atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials, and equipment and services. www.airproducts.com. Air Products are an existing partner of AFC Energy on the Company’s SuperGreen Power Station project.

For media enquiries, interview, quote or images please contact:

Gemma Percy, PR and Communication Officer, Life Size Media – press@afcenergy.com / +44 (0)20 7499 7772

By Matt Coleman

University of North Florida’s project also could earn the school a higher profile in research.

The University of North Florida isn’t the state’s dominant research institute. Boosters from the University of Florida and Florida State University are locked in a back-and-forth tussle for that crown.

But administrators from the Jacksonville college think one of the school’s ongoing development projects could be the ticket to a higher statewide profile, more recognition in the research community and a bevy of jobs centered in Northeast Florida.

The college’s school of engineering has received a combined $9.4 million in federal contracts from the Army and Department of Energy for a fuel cell research project that’s scheduled to run for at least the next two years.

The research has two goals: Develop and then commercialize a direct methanol fuel cell power source for two laptops – one for American soldiers, the other for ordinary consumers.

It’s the highest-funded project in the school’s history.

Imeh D. Ebong, UNF’s assistant vice president for research, said the practical applications of the research could lead to a number of patents and a sizable financial boon.

“It’s not on the level of a research project like Gatorade at UF where everyone will use it,” Ebong said. “It’s a little more precise. But, in another way, it could be our Gatorade because it will be the most high-profile product UNF has ever developed – something that people will naturally link to the school.”

Jim Fletcher, a UNF mechanical engineering professor leading the research, said the project has evolved since its inception in 2007 from a commercially focused project to one with military ties.

The end goal was always to create a methanol-based energy source for portable electronics that runs longer, weighs less and uses fewer heavy metals than the average battery.

Michael Dominick, a mechanical engineer and the Army’s technical lead for the fuel cell research, said the military identified the potential field application of the UNF project and commissioned the school to create a military version.

Soldiers in the field are forced to lug laptops with cumbersome battery packs that need to be charged regularly. The research’s aim is to give them true wireless connectivity and almost 10 hours of uninterrupted power.

“Laptops must be charged with grid power, which isn’t available in the field,” Dominick said. “With the methanol fuel cells, they wouldn’t have to come back from the field to the operating base to recharge.”

Fletcher has a team of about a half-dozen graduate students testing different design elements to streamline the military prototype and make the fuel cell cartridges smaller and more rugged.

They’ve dropped them, heated them up and run them through a gamut of tests to simulate combat conditions.

“We’re throwing everything we can think of at it,” Fletcher said.

Jason Harrington, 26, a University of Florida graduate student, is working with Fletcher. He graduated from UNF and was offered a unique opportunity to stay at his alma mater and continue his research. Even though UNF doesn’t have a master’s program in mechanical engineering, Harrington said the fuel cell research is as cutting-edge as any project in Gainesville.

“It made my choice a lot easier when I found a way to stay here and continue the work,” he said. “We’re close to finishing, and I didn’t want to give this up.”

Fletcher said the research is approaching its last phase, which involves even more field tests before submitting a final product for review.

Once the military research wraps up, the students will continue to streamline the technology for commercial use and devise ways to mass-produce the pieces with the assistance of DOE.

Ebong said the financial implications are obvious. Schools with patent research projects have been able to develop ancillary streams of income to help ride out state funding cuts.

UF’s powerhouse research program, for instance, has a budget of about $500 million compared with $15 million at UNF.

That’s why Ebong said he doesn’t compare UNF with larger state schools.

Projects like the methanol fuel cell aren’t just about making money for the college. The school’s regional impact is a major consideration.

Once the fuel cells are licensed, Ebong said UNF could reach out to local developers for mass production.

A company like Saft America, a battery manufacturer that recently laid down roots at the Cecil Commerce Center, would be a logical choice for a local partner, he said.

“Production would stay in Jacksonville, jobs would stay in Jacksonville and we’d develop a relationship with a good company for our graduates who want to stay in Jacksonville,” Ebong said.

“It’s nice to think about becoming a huge research school that develops projects all over the world, but that’s not us right now,” he said. “We want to develop research that helps Northeast Florida. That’s what we’re here for.”