FuelCellsWorks

DATELINE: SOUTHBOROUGH, MA; Protonex Technology Corporation (LSE: AIM: PTX and PTXU), a leading provider of advanced fuel cell power systems, today provides a trading update following its fiscal year end on 30 September 2009. The Company expects to announce its full year results in January 2010.

During the year to 30 September 2009 Protonex made significant progress as it finalised several core technologies and prepared for a set of initial product launches during 2010. The Company’s prime focus has been on developing high-value fuel cell products for which there is near term market demand and which are scalable. Those products must be robust as well as efficient and economic in comparison with alternative sources of energy.

Protonex’ unique combination of PEM (proton exchange membrane) and SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) systems is emerging as a critical advantage for the Company, allowing it to offer multi-fuel capabilities and to target a broader set of addressable markets. The Directors believe that the Company is very well- positioned to compete in an attractive set of commercial, consumer and military markets in 2010 and beyond.

TRADING UPDATE

Protonex expects to report a significant increase in total revenues for the second half of 2009, as compared with the first half of the year. Based on this strong second half, the Directors expect full year 2009 results to be in line with their expectations of revenue and cash flow.

The US Military continues to increase its focus and associated funding on detached, portable, and unmanned systems. Protonex’ cutting-edge products and technologies are receiving strong interest from a broad range of U.S. Military and government agencies and the Company expects future programme revenue to remain robust.

The Company expects to report that government programme revenues in the second half of fiscal 2009 increased significantly over the first half of the year as the new US Administration took office and new contracts again began to flow to Protonex. Also, since many of the new programmes are for 12 months or more, the Company has a strong backlog of programme revenue for fiscal 2010.

PRODUCT PLATFORMS

Protonex is tightly focused on developing and launching a series of advanced fuel cell products that deliver strong value propositions to a set of targeted commercial, consumer and military markets in 2010 and 2011. The Company continues to make steady progress on the development of its four major product platforms.

1) M250 Product Platform: Protonex’ 250-watt methanol-fuelled product platform is the Company’s most mature and enables several near-term products.

• The M250-B system, targeted initially at the recreational vehicle (RV), marine and renewable energy markets, provides users with clean, quiet and efficient auxiliary power, eliminating the need for conventional generators or engines.The M250-B product is currently scheduled for a 2010 launch into the RV and marine markets, both of which appear to be showing signs of recovery as the world economy begins to pull out of recession. As previously announced, Cummins (NYSE: CMI), a global leader in power generation and distribution, has partnered with Protonex to cooperate in the marketing of the M250-B system into the RV market. The Directors believe that the Cummins commitment provides important confirmation of the M250-B product’s viability and value proposition in the leisure segment.

• The M250-CX system, a high performance, lightweight and quiet power unit, is designed to charge up to six military batteries simultaneously or to function as a portable auxiliary power unit (APU). By using the M250-CX in certain mission scenarios, the US Department of Defense could switch to rechargeable batteries in the field, thereby reducing overall weight and saving significantly on the hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually on non- rechargeable batteries. To date, Protonex has received $7.75 million in contracts from the US Military to develop this platform.Earlier in 2009, Protonex shifted the M250-CX platform to its highest priority due to strong military interest and funding potential. Protonex is scheduled to deliver 22 M250-CX units to the US Military for testing and evaluation in late 2009 and a proposal has been submitted for a significant next-stage programme (up to $6 million over 24 months), including a product sales component of over 100 units.

2) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Power Systems: Protonex UAV power systems provide critical performance improvements and mission enhancements for small UAVs, delivering up to four times the flight duration compared to advanced battery systems. A recent performance indicator is the Company’s 23-hour UAV flight earlier this month with the US Navy, far surpassing any flights by similarly- sized UAVs.

Long duration, small UAVs remain one of the highest priorities for the US Military and Protonex has emerged as a leader in providing next generation power systems for this market space. The Company continues to receive significant, ongoing development contracts and funding from the US Air Force, Navy, SOCOM, and other branches and is currently in discussions with several UAV prime contractors. Protonex UAV power systems are moving rapidly from flight demonstrations to deployable products and the Company expects that its first shipment of products could take place in mid to late 2010.

3) Power Managers: Protonex’ BPM and SPM power managers are small energy management devices designed to create an efficient and flexible “smart grid” on special forces and regular infantry personnel. Protonex’ power managers can deliver up to a 30-50% improvement in energy use and corresponding weight. They also enable the use of solar, fuel cell, and other alternative power sources.

Both the BPM and SPM units are complete as products and are now being tested and evaluated by several branches of the US Military domestically and in Iraq and Afghanistan. Management expects power managers to be the most likely source of near-term product revenue in its 2010 fiscal year.

4) SOFC Product Platforms: Protonex’ SOFC platforms have made extensive progress in 2009. The Company recently demonstrated the operation of fully packaged SOFC systems running on propane and is pleased to announce that two of these units have been delivered to the US Army for testing and evaluation. The Company is also making good progress in the processing of more energy dense liquid fuels including kerosene, butanol, gasoline, and diesel. The Company was very successful during 2009 in securing military funding to help support its overall SOFC development efforts and Management expects this level of support to continue.

As announced in July 2009, Protonex hired Dr. Caine Finnerty, a leading expert in SOFC and former CTO of Nanodynamics Inc. Subsequently, Protonex has hired several other key employees from Nanodynamics to enhance further the capabilities of the Company’s SOFC team. In addition, the Company is participating in the bidding process for substantially all of the SOFC-related assets of Nanodynamics Energy Inc, which recently entered into US bankruptcy proceedings.

SUMMARY

The Company’s core business strategy remains unchanged and on track. The Company has launched two products in 2009 and expects additional product introductions during 2010. The Directors of Protonex are pleased with the Company’s 2009 performance and remain confident in the Company’s growth prospects in 2010 and beyond.

By Agnieszka Flak

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Fuel cells can play a big role in plugging Africa’s power deficit in a greener way, with commercialisation seen within a decade, an official at Anglo Platinum (Angloplat) said.

Angloplat, the world’s top producer of the precious metal, launched a demonstration fuel cell plant in South Africa’s Limpopo province to produce 200 kilowatts of electricity by converting coal-bed methane (CBM) gas into hydrogen.

Anthea Bath, head of market development and research, said Angloplat’s interest in fuel cells lay in their potential to boost demand for platinum, used as a catalyst in the cells.

She said the company hoped to use the site to prove the technology’s viability for a continent where millions of people are still in the dark and governments battle in the face of billions of dollars required to boost supply and build networks.

“Fuel cells are a unique opportunity for Africa … they are modular in nature, you can put them in a remote area, they can run on or off grid, they can run on (various) feed sources,” she told Reuters in an interview.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and heat. Various feed sources, such as methane and natural gas, can be reformed into hydrogen to run it.

Bath said that even though fuel cells were used in Europe and the United States in buildings, schools, telecoms towers and hospitals, they still needed to gain worldwide acceptance, especially in Africa.

“There are a lot of aspects that need to be improved before fuel cells can be adopted fully, but in terms of the technology, it’s on the crest of commercialisation,” she said.

Angloplat bought the second-hand demonstration unit from United Technologies’ UTC Power and invested about 10 million rand in the project so far, a first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa, Bath said.

Despite the high upfront capital needs, the maintenance costs for the plant, monitored remotely and with no moving parts, are low.

“On a total cost basis, fuel cells are going to be competitive with existing technologies,” Bath said.

AngloPlat is working closely with the government to develop skills centres around the country to promote fuel cells as a viable technology for the country and beyond.

“We might not be the ones making them, but we would like to see companies making them for the local market … there are economic, environmental and social benefits to looking at fuel cells,” she said.

Murali Arikara Appointed to Executive Vice President Emerging Markets

Intelligent Energy, the clean power systems company, today announced that it has appointed Murali Arikara as its Executive Vice President for Emerging Markets. Previously Head of US Operations, Arikara will now be responsible for leading the development of business strategies that will help Intelligent Energy achieve its long term objectives for business growth and global expansion.

Increased consumer spending and infrastructure investment are fuelling growth in many emerging economies, such as China, Brazil, Russia and India, making this an ideal time for business expansion. Working alongside senior executives within the organization, Arikara will play a central role in managing Intelligent Energy’s broad portfolio of business, whilst strengthening its efforts to enter such exciting new markets.

“Emerging markets present exciting opportunities for the deployment of our clean power technologies, and the interest we have already received from potential partners is very encouraging,” said Arikara.  “I am excited at having this opportunity to extend Intelligent Energy’s business into these extremely important and rapidly growing markets.”

Prior to joining Intelligent Energy as VP of Business Development in early 2008, Arikara was a founder of fuel cell provider, Jadoo Power, and served in various technical and executive leadership roles. In 2006, he won the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Northern California.

“The success Murali has already brought to the company in the United States together with his understanding of global emerging markets, made him the outstanding choice for this role,” explained Dr Henri Winand, CEO of Intelligent Energy. “Emerging markets boast some of the fastest growing economies in recent years and demand for efficient, clean and robust power systems such as those provided by Intelligent Energy continue to increase at pace. This appointment is a clear statement of our intent to develop business partnerships and extend the commercial roll-out of Intelligent Energy’s clean power systems across these regions and on to a truly global level.”

Murali Arikara, new EVP Emerging Markets for Intelligent Energy

About Intelligent Energy
Intelligent Energy is a clean power systems company, with a range of leading fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies. The company is focused on the provision of cleaner power and low carbon technologies. Intelligent Energy partners with leading companies globally, in the transportation, oil and gas, aerospace, defence, distributed generation and portable power markets. Current partners and customers include Scottish & Southern Energy plc with whom the company has formed a joint venture to commercialise fuel cell combined heat and power (CHP) systems, and The Suzuki Motor Corporation. Intelligent Energy’s successes in recent years include the development of the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell motorbike and supplying the fuel cell system to Boeing which powered the world’s first manned fuel cell aircraft. The company also recently supplied Airbus with a multi-functional fuel cell auxiliary power unit (APU) aimed at on-board power and other loads in future commercial airliners.

Point Lookout, NY, Grand Opening of One of the First Hydrogen Fuel  Cell Station

Duration : 0:8:30

Point Lookout Hydrogen Station

“We regard it as very positive that Powercell will gain an additional strong financial owner. This will enable us to be a long-term partner in heavy industrial development projects,” says Per Wassén, Chairman of Powercell Sweden AB and Investment Director at Volvo Technology Transfer.

Fouriertransform’s investment will be made by a directed share issue, i.e. money is injected directly into the company in exchange for new shares. Through Volvo Technology Transfer, AB Volvo will remain as the largest owner of Powercell Sweden AB, with more than 40 percent of the shares. The other owners are OCAS, Midroc New Technology and Fouriertransform.

“We have come to know the enterprise and the people behind it, and are looking forward to a trustful cooperation. We are convinced that this is a good investment for the industry, with potential for high profitability, says Hans Golteus, Acting CEO of Fouriertransform.

As recently as the beginning of July, the major companies Midroc and OCAS, along with the Swedish Energy Agency and Volvo Technology Transfer, made a joint investment of SEK 200 M in Powercell Sweden AB in Göteborg. An investment which will generate 100 new jobs in Göteborg over the next three years.

“We are busy staffing the company and have received more than 1,000 highly qualified applicants for our advertised jobs,” says Per Wassén, who also reveals the location of Powercell Sweden’s new premises.

“All resources, from management, marketing and sales to development, production, purchasing and the laboratory will be collected under one roof, close to the abutment of the Älvsborg Bridge on Hisingen in Göteborg. This will make Powercell the largest fuel cell plant in northern Europe,” says Per Wassén.

A fuel cell can be compared with a small battery that operates on hydrogen gas. During a chemical reaction, the hydrogen gas is converted to electricity with no other waste but water. To resolve the issue of hydrogen gas accessibility, Powercell will initially produce hydrogen gas from such existing fuels as biofuel and gasoline or diesel. Compared with normal diesel or gasoline-operated electrical aggregates, Powercell’s product will generate considerably less carbon dioxide emissions, and no emissions whatsoever of particles, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. The fuel cells are also more efficient, smaller and more silent.

Powercell Sweden’s product has been developed by Volvo Technology for more than 15 years and is based on two patented components: a fuel converter (reformer) and a PEM fuel cell – the type of fuel cell most often used in transport applications. The fuel converter produces hydrogen gas from bio fuels such as ethanol, DME (Dimethyl ether), biogas, methanol and biodiesel, but also from regular diesel or gasoline.

Examples of application areas include electrical aggregates for households, trucks, boats, radio masts at remote locations and electrical hybrid vehicles.

Fouriertransform AB (FTAB) is a venture capital company, established and owned by the Swedish State for investments in companies in the automotive industry. FTAB has a commercial mission, and its investments shall generate market return in the long term.

Powercell Sweden AB develops and distributes advanced fuel cell systems for the transport industry and selective high technology markets. The company was founded in 2008 as a subsidiary to Volvo Technology Transfer. The technology behind Powercell’s fuel cells has been developed within the Volvo Group’s company Volvo Technology.
Volvo Technology Transfer is a subsidiary of the Volvo Group. Volvo Technology Transfer develops and supports new business that is relevant to the Volvo Group. This comprises investing in companies and projects that are of strategic, technical and commercial interest.

Midroc New Technology, a part of Midroc Europe, develops and invests in future technologies within Clean Tech and BioMed. Midroc is owned by Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi who among other companies owns Preem Petroleum, Swedish Petroleum Exploration and Västra Hamnen Funds.

OCAS is an advanced market-driven material research centre based in Belgium. OCAS’ investment in Powercell Sweden AB was taken up by the investment fund Finindus. OCAS will support Powercell Sweden with the development and optimizing of materials and their implementations.

The Swedish Energy Agency operates in various sectors of society to create conditions for an efficient and sustainable energy use and a cost-effective Swedish energy supply.

AMHERST, Mass. – Hydrogen fuel, because its only byproduct is steam, should be the ultimate in green alternatives to fossil fuels, but it hasn’t delivered on its promise yet because of one enormous stumbling block, storage. Now a team of chemical engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed a computational model that shows that carbon nanotubes may offer a surprising solution. Results are presented in the current online issue of the journal, Applied Physics Letters.

“If this works as we expect, it’s perhaps no longer science fiction to hope for a briefcase-sized hydrogen battery to run a bus or car,” says UMass Amherst chemical engineering professor Dimitrios Maroudas. “Hydrogen storage has been a huge problem in the energy field for the past 10 years because no one has been able to demonstrate a truly viable storage medium. We’ve shown that it’s possible to achieve hydrogen storage capacity up to 8 percent by weight using carbon nanotubes. This is an outstanding level, higher by 1 percent than the 2010 United States Department of Energy target for on-board hydrogen storage systems,” Maroudas adds. “The method we propose may lead to breaking the bottleneck.”

The UMass Amherst computational model strongly lends itself to verification in laboratory experiments, say Maroudas and colleagues, and it provides ample testable hypotheses for future experimental research. “People had been losing faith, but I think our predictions show that hydrogen should be back on the table and in a most promising way. We come up with modeling predictions for technologically relevant problems every day, but this cute model is special,” he notes.

Specifically, Maroudas, his graduate student Andre Muniz and their collaborator M. Meyyappan, chief scientist for exploration technology at the Center for Nanotechnology at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., show that proper arrangement of carbon nanotubes can overcome hydrogen transport limitations in nanotube bundles. It should also prevent ineffective and nonuniform hydrogenation, which is caused by nanotube swelling due to chemisorption of hydrogen atoms on the nanotube walls.

If one were to think of carbon nanotube bundles as something like a toothbrush, one strategy that Maroudas and colleagues recommend for holding hydrogen atoms most efficiently is that the brush arrangement should not be too dense. If it is, when the tubules swell they’ll block efficient passage and diffusion of the hydrogen, Maroudas explains. In addition to an optimal bundle density, further improvement can be achieved by optimizing the individual nanotube configurations to limit their swelling upon hydrogenation.

Following this approach should result in one hydrogen atom being able to chemisorb onto—form a chemical bond with—each carbon atom of the nanotubes, leading to 100 percent (atomically) storage capacity, he adds. This chemisorbed hydrogen, bound to the surface, can then be easily released by applying heat.

Maroudas says, “We propose recipes that will be very easy for others to try, by which carbon nanotubes can be arranged to accomplish practically 100 percent storage atomically, which is nearly 8 percent by weight. You can’t get any greener than hydrogen as fuel, and if the experiments we envision lead to new technology that’s economically viable, that’s as good as it gets.” This work was supported by a National Science Foundation grant and a Fulbright/CAPES scholarship to Muniz.