AFC Announces Appointment of Chief Engineer and Product Officer

AFC Energy plc (AIM: AFC), a leading provider of Hydrogen power generation technologies, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Michael Rendall as its new Chief Engineer and Product Officer, effective from 1st March 2021. 

Dr Rendall joins AFC Energy from Dyson Technology Ltd where he was Head of Engineering and Industrialisation for Dyson’s Energy Storage team where he was leading on several battery and energy storage programmes. 

Prior to Dyson, Dr Rendall held the position of Chief Technology Officer at Diverse Energy which prototyped the conversion of Ammonia into electricity using novel gas reforming technology and fuel cells into a self-contained power source marketed as the Power Cube.  The Power Cube utilised PEM fuel cells with challenges associated with gas clean-up cost and system economics.  Now, through the adoption of alkaline fuel cell chemistry, Dr Rendall’s specialist experience in the utilisation of ammonia as a fuel and in ammonia cracking, will support AFC Energy to further leverage one of the technology’s core strengths as it explores the use of fuel cells in stationary, maritime and transport related applications.    

Dr Rendall’s leadership in technology and development strategy for the scale up and commercial realisation of new technologies has seen a significant emphasis on the accelerated conversion of prototypes into marketable systems.  This experience will support AFC Energy’s corporate aspirations for the fast-tracking of high-density alkaline fuel cell system development and deployment over the next couple of years.

Of particular relevance to AFC Energy is Dr Rendall’s track record in leading Joint Development Agreements with development partners which ultimately led to the scale up of initial manufacturing facility design, equipment specification, procurement, installation and operations across the UK.   

Commenting on his appointment, Dr Rendall, said: “The Hydrogen economy has now gained broad acceptance as a key enabler of new zero greenhouse aspirations and has the ability to grow into a significant global market for AFC Energy and its peers. AFC Energy’s alkaline technology brings with it many advantages, not least its ability to function effectively on lower grade fuels including Ammonia which I believe opens opportunities in stationary and mobile applications.  I’m pleased to be joining AFC Energy at a point in time where technology productisation and engineering is going to drive new opportunities with the Company’s partners and customers and I very much look forward to being part of AFC Energy’s success as a low cost provider of fuel cell power systems.”

Adam Bond, Chief Executive of AFC Energy, said: “We are delighted to welcome Mike to AFC Energy and see tremendous value in his world class experience at Dyson and Diverse Energy in delivering real world applications in collaboration with industry partners in fulfilment of customer demand.  Mike will strengthen our engineering and manufacturing scale up capability at a time when our fuel cell technology continues to move into real world applications.  In particular, the acceleration of the high-density anion exchange membrane fuel cell into both stationary and transport-based applications from prototype to commercial system will be materially enhanced by Mike’s contribution. 

About AFC Energy

AFC Energy plc is commercialising a scalable alkaline fuel cell system, to provide clean electricity for on and off grid applications. The technology, pioneered over the past twelve years in the UK, is now deployable in electric vehicle chargers, off-grid decentralised power systems and industrial gas plants as part of a portfolio approach to the decarbonisation of local electricity needs.

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