Ethanol Fuel Cell

29 July 2004

Physorg.com. Intelligent Energy has successfully completed trials of its stationary, ethanol-based fuel cell system. The company is targeting distributed power generation in Latin America as an opportune market for technology such as this.

Intelligent Energy formed in 2001 and set about acquiring three other companies that became the building blocks of its business. Those companies were:

• Advanced Power Sources, a UK PEM fuel cells research and development company
• Element One Enterprises, US-based hydrogen fuel experts
• MesoFuel, a New Mexico company that develops micro-devices for the conversion of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons into pure hydrogen for storage and use in PEM and other fuel cells.

The combination of the three allowed Intelligent Energy to deliver the solution described above. The Mesofuel technology reforms the ethanol to hydrogen, which then fuels the PEM fuel cell. Apparently the reformers work with light and heavy hydrocarbons (natural gas through to diesel), renewable fuels (such as ethanol, biodiesel and others) and decarbonized fuels (such as ammonia). The company is targeting stationary and mobile applications.

On the PEM side, they claim to have a unique stack architecture that is simpler and thus earier to build, offering a range of power outputs. Neat. I’d love to find more substantive detail.

I’m expecting to see many more rollups or combinations such as this, in multiple sectors, as business entrepreneurs combine with technology innovators.