Carbon Trust has given a £1m boost to four UK fuel cell
pioneers. Their cutting-edge technology could be used under
the bonnet of mass-produced hydrogen-powered cars as early as
2017. Major manufacturers have already built hydrogen-powered
fuel cell cars, but the real challenge is to bring down the costs
and, in the global race to do this, UK technologies are now in pole
position.
Having identified an opportunity to combine innovative
technology from Runcorn-based ACAL Energy and Sheffield-based ITM
Power, the Carbon Trust is providing £500k of funding to the
companies to develop a new hybrid high-power, low-cost fuel cell
design.
Carbon Trust is also backing a project based at Imperial College
London (Imperial) and University College London (UCL) with £500k to
develop a fuel cell that could offer significant cost savings by
using existing high-volume manufacturing techniques employed in the
production of printed circuit boards.
The funding comes from the Carbon Trust's Polymer Fuel Cells
Challenge (PFCC) which was launched in 2009 to support the
Department for Energy and Climate Change's objectives to develop
lower cost fuel cells and coincides with the recent launch of the
Government's UKH2Mobility project to ensure the UK is well
positioned for the commercial roll-out of hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles.
Dr Ben Graziano, Technology Commercialisation Manager at
the Carbon Trust, said:
"The UK's home-grown automotive industry hasn't been the runaway
success story many would have hoped for, but British technology is
in pole position to be under the bonnet of a next generation of
mass-produced hydrogen-powered cars. After a lot of hype,
fuel cell technology is now a great growth opportunity for the
UK. The funding that we have received from the Department for
Energy and Climate Change has enabled us to support the development
of some truly world-class British technologies that could slash the
costs of fuel cells and transform how we all get about; by 2017
British fuel cell technologies could be powering your car."
Simon Bourne, CTO, ITM Power Plc, said:
"The PFCC has afforded ITM the opportunity to build on its
ground breaking laboratory results via a structured programme to
de-risk its membrane technology. With the high level introductions
the Carbon Trust has made with commercial end users and the
continued success of subsequent material evaluation studies, ITM is
in a very strong position to exploit this exciting new fuel cell
technology."
Amanda Lyne, VP of Strategic Business Development and
Marketing, ACAL Energy Ltd said:
"It is excellent news that automotive OEMs are committed to the
launch of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles in 2015 timescales,
and that the UK will be among the early adopters. However it is
clear that continuous efforts to reduce cost will be necessary to
ensure that H2FC vehicles are affordable for mass markets. This
funding from the Carbon Trust PFCC is perfectly targeted to ensure
that British innovation can be at the forefront of the process to
get the economics of the technology right."
Carbon Trust's Polymer Fuel Cells Challenge aims to speed the UK
towards world-beating fuel cell solutions that can grab a
significant share of a market that the Carbon Trust has estimated
to be worth $26bn in 2020. About the projects:
ACAL Energy/ITM Power
Carbon Trust, which has already supported ACAL Energy and ITM
Power in de-risking their unique technologies, saw an opportunity
to combine these innovations to demonstrate a fuel cell that could
be far cheaper to manufacture, more efficient, produce the required
power and be compact enough to fit under the bonnet of tomorrow's
cars. ACAL Energy brings a revolutionary new design of fuel
cell inspired by the human lung and bloodstream that is highly
durable, virtually platinum-free and also significantly cheaper to
produce. ITM Power brings a unique membrane technology (which
has been evaluated by several global companies), proven to produce
world-beating power density (widely recognised as the single most
important factor in reducing fuel cell costs), which could be in
fuel cell cars by as early as 2017.
ITM's current order book for delivery in the current financial
year is £0.5m. The company has recruited seven staff in the
last 12 months and is currently seeking to recruit ten more.
ACAL Energy has raised £6.1m of investment since March 2010 and its
staff is set to increase from 25 at that time to 35 by April
2012.
Imperial/UCL
The Imperial and UCL project is developing a fuel cell stack
that could offer significant cost savings by using existing
high-volume manufacturing techniques employed in the production of
printed circuit boards. By simplifying the design and
manufacture, this could reduce the costs of a fuel cell stack by
more than 20%. Imperial Innovations and UCL Business are
collaborating with the project to assist commercialisation of the
technology.
Notes to editors:
For more information and to speak to a Carbon Trust
spokesperson, please contact the Carbon Trust press office:
Tel no: 0207 544 3100
Email: press@carbontrust.com
For inquiries about the fuel cell technology, please contact
Henry Rummins in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)207
679 9063, mobile: +44 (0)757 260 2345, e-mail: h.rummins@ucl.ac.uk
About the Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust is a not-for-profit company with the mission to
accelerate the move to a low carbon economy, providing specialist
support to business and the public sector to help cut carbon
emissions, save energy and commercialise low carbon
technologies. By stimulating low carbon action we contribute
to key UK goals of lower carbon emissions, the development of low
carbon businesses, increased energy security and associated
jobs.
We help to cut carbon emissions now by
- Providing specialist advice and finance to help organisations
cut carbon
- Setting standards for carbon reduction
We reduce potential future carbon emissions by
- Opening markets for low carbon technologies
- Leading industry collaborations to commercialise
technologies
- Investing in early stage low carbon companies
About UCL (University College London)
Described by The Sunday Times as 'an intellectual powerhouse
with a world-class reputation', UCL is consistently ranked as one
of the top three multifaculty universities in the UK and features
in the top universities worldwide.
Founded in 1826, UCL is a multidisciplinary university with an
international reputation for the quality of its research and
teaching across the academic spectrum, with subjects spanning the
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