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 | | From: | Steve Spence | | Subject: | Thoughts on this fuel cell company? | | Date: | Tue, 18 Jan 2005 11:44:32 GMT |
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 | Company seeks £10m to build new source of portable power
Richard Wray
Monday January 17, 2005
The Guardian
A fuel cell company whose chairman is the chief executive of tool hire
specialist Speedy Hire is planning to list on the Aim next month to
raise cash to increase its manufacturing operations in Basingstoke.
Voller Energy Group is hoping to raise £10m in a float which will value
the company at roughly twice that. The cash will be used to raise
production of its fuel cells.
"We're doing this because we need to scale up, not because we need to
prove the technology," said the chief executive, Stephen Voller.
Fuel cells work by converting the chemical energy in hydrogen into
electrical energy with water created as a waste product. Voller is
targeting the leisure, construction and maintenance markets and is also
collaborating with a partner in the yachting world on a fuel cell for
use at sea.
Voller, which has been visiting potential investors with advisers Arden
Partners, has also signed a letter of intent with Speedy Hire which is
interested in using Voller's technology to recharge power tools.
Traditionally, construction sites have relied on diesel or petrol
generators which produce fumes and cannot be used in confined spaces.
Fuel cells, however, can go anywhere on site to provide recharging
facilities.
Speedy Hire's chief executive, John Brown, joined Voller as
non-executive chairman in April and several Speedy Hire executives are
understood to have put money into the business, which has been funded to
date by business angels and its founders. None of the existing
shareholders are selling.
Part of the cash from the float will be used to build a manufacturing
facility in Basingstoke which will meet Speedy Hire's demand for fuel cells.
"The challenge we will face in the first couple of years will be to
fulfil demand," Mr Voller said.
The current generation of fuel cells use metal hydrides as a source of
hydrogen but they are expensive. Voller is working on a range of cells
using cheaper propane or butane gas as a source of hydrogen.
--
Steve Spence
Dir., Green Trust
http://www.green-trust.org
Contributing Editor
http://www.off-grid.net
http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html
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| | From: | Dave Gower | | Subject: | Re: Thoughts on this fuel cell company? | | Date: | Tue, 18 Jan 2005 11:02:52 -0500 |
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"Steve Spence" quoted second-hand
>...Voller is working on a range of cells using cheaper propane or butane
>gas as a source of hydrogen.
It's always better to get one's information directly from the source (i.e.
one that the company executives have to take legal responsibility for) than
a newspaper article.
I DO however like the sound of this last statement. The Achilles heel of any
hydrogen energy system is always handling the fuel. Using carbon atoms to
lock in the hydrogen makes a lot of sense, although I wonder why this
journalist missed the most obvious form of this, methane. The holy grail of
fuel cells is to make one that will actually extract the energy of the
carbon atom, rather than just simply work around it. I hope that's what they
are working on, and if so I hope they succeed.
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| | From: | G. R. L. Cowan | | Subject: | Re: Thoughts on this fuel cell company? | | Date: | Tue, 18 Jan 2005 11:41:49 -0500 |
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| Dave Gower wrote:
>
> "Steve Spence" quoted second-hand
>
> >...Voller is working on a range of cells using cheaper propane or butane
> >gas as a source of hydrogen.
>
> It's always better to get one's information directly from the source (i.e.
> one that the company executives have to take legal responsibility for) than
> a newspaper article.
>
> I DO however like the sound of this last statement. The Achilles heel of any
> hydrogen energy system is always handling the fuel. Using carbon atoms to
> lock in the hydrogen makes a lot of sense, although I wonder why this
> journalist missed the most obvious form of this, methane.
Propane or butane are easily containable as room-temperature liquids
of high energy density at moderate pressure. Not methane.
Generators for hire, I think at construction sites,
was the market that was mentioned.
Try a different snippage of the original posting ...
> > Traditionally, construction sites have relied on diesel or petrol
> > generators which produce fumes and cannot be used in confined spaces.
> > Fuel cells, however, can go anywhere on site to provide recharging
> > facilities.
> >
> > ... working on a range of cells
> > using cheaper propane or butane gas as a source of hydrogen...
.... and not usable in confined spaces.
The company will have to make some significant progress
for its product to be where a petrol generators with a catalytic
converter on its exhaust is now.
Now true, fuel cells can be quieter.
-- Graham Cowan, former hydrogen fan
http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/Paper_for_11th_CHC.html --
How individual mobility gains nuclear cachet
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| | From: | Dave Gower | | Subject: | Re: Thoughts on this fuel cell company? | | Date: | Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:56:08 -0500 |
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"G. R. L. Cowan" wrote
> Propane or butane are easily containable as room-temperature liquids
> of high energy density at moderate pressure. Not methane.
> Generators for hire, I think at construction sites,
> was the market that was mentioned.
I have no problem with propane and butane or other gaseous hydrocarbons. But
methane is not that hard to contain (there are lots of natural-gas driven
vehicles on the road) so it needs to be part of the discussion. It is the
simplest compound (one carbon to four hydrogen) which gives it a high energy
content and low emissions. It is also available now in the network of
natural gas pipelines, and for the future is the easiest to produce from
waste biomass.
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| | From: | Dan Bloomquist | | Subject: | Re: Thoughts on this fuel cell company? | | Date: | Wed, 19 Jan 2005 05:09:50 GMT |
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Dave Gower wrote:
> "Steve Spence" quoted second-hand
>
>
>>...Voller is working on a range of cells using cheaper propane or butane
>>gas as a source of hydrogen.
>
>
> It's always better to get one's information directly from the source (i.e.
> one that the company executives have to take legal responsibility for) than
> a newspaper article.
>
> I DO however like the sound of this last statement. The Achilles heel of any
> hydrogen energy system is always handling the fuel. Using carbon atoms to
> lock in the hydrogen makes a lot of sense, although I wonder why this
> journalist missed the most obvious form of this, methane. The holy grail of
> fuel cells is to make one that will actually extract the energy of the
> carbon atom, rather than just simply work around it. I hope that's what they
> are working on, and if so I hope they succeed.
Oxygen ion fuel cells, like SOFC, do just that. There is even, if still
in an experimental state, fuel cell that will utilize pure carbon.
The nice thing about SOFC is that while half the carbon gets oxidized,
producing heat, (the other half produces electricity), it is a rather
high quality heat that can be bottom cycled.
Methane is an ideal fuel. We should/are on the brink of implementing
home generated electrical/heating fuel systems around SOFC. But for
digging into the profits of big producers, it would greatly extend our
use of NatGas in this country. The Northern states have a long heating
season.
Best, Dan.
--
http://lakeweb.net
http://ReserveAnalyst.com
No EXTRA stuff for email.
What can you see if you can't see it all...
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| | From: | bernxard at yahoo.com.au | | Subject: | Re: Thoughts on this fuel cell company? | | Date: | 19 Jan 2005 19:48:40 -0800 |
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| So the company is producing portable power chargers opperated by
hydrogen fueled PEM technology fuel-cells.
They have a niche market in areas where safety, low noise and low
pollution are essential.
What they are doing is using well developed PEM fuel cells to create
small power supplies where piston compressors might be unsuaitable
(though I note a little Honda Gernerator is the size of a small ghetto
blaster radio and quiet enough for a busker to use for his electric
guitar)
Here are the issues I would be concerned about.
Where does the Hydrogen come from? The Hydrogen must be tested 99.99%
pure. This is becuase CO carbon monoxide poisons PEM fuel cells while
Oxyen poisons the Metal Hydride storage canisters.
It sounds to me like you have to use the metal hydride storage
canisters that they will provided pre-filled for you.
(I believe both PEM and metal hydride canister can be 'regenerated'
after poisoning)
They also talk of running the fuel cell stack directly of a hydrogen
storage compressed bottle. Hydrogen is easily available from welding
suppliers but how pure is it? Is 99.99% pure easily available?
They are also talking of running it of bottled propane gas that is
reformed into hydrogen. Does this reformer exist? Does it produce a
pure enough gas?
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