Category Archives: Fuel Cells

March 28, 2003 — Pacific Fuel Cell Corp. (PFCE) has developed a process to grow carbon nanotubes on carbon cloth paper for micro fuel cells, according to a company news release.

The Tustin, Calif.-based firm said researchers at University of California, Riverside, discovered the process, which uses chemical vapor deposition. PFCE signed a contract with the university to research and develop a fuel cell prototype based on the firm’s carbon nanotechnology.

Low-cost nanotube production is a key part of PFCE’s plan to develop micro fuel cell technology to replace batteries in laptops, cell phones and other consumer electronics, the release said.

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TOKYO, March 25, 2003 — Twelve years after NEC Corp.’s Sumio Iijima discovered the carbon nanotube, the company’s fuel cells — powered by a variant called the carbon nanohorn — are getting ready to power portable devices.

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Yoshimi Kubo, senior manager of NEC Fundamental Research Labs’ Nanotube Technology Center, said the fuel cells will start shipping for laptops in 2004 and cell phones in 2005.

In a demonstration at a nanotech conference in Japan late last month, Kubo showed mockups of a fuel cell that ran an NEC laptop and a smaller fuel cell that operated an NEC mobile phone. The 400-gram, 12-volt notebook fuel cell was still about the size of the computer’s display, but had no problem providing the 18 watts necessary to boot the laptop. The mobile phone fuel cell can already provide the 3 watts needed for Japan’s 3G phones, he said.

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NEC’s methanol-fueled polymer electrolyte cells, using 100-nanometer nanohorn clumps dusted with platinum catalyst particles, can theoretically achieve up to 10 times the power density of lithium ion batteries. Next year, NEC will produce methanol-fueled power cells the same weight as lithium ion batteries that will run for about 16 hours, he said.

“We have two choices: We can make them at the same weight as lithium batteries, but they’ll last three times longer, or we can make them a third smaller, so they’ll run about the same time [4-6 hours]. The probable route is the same size, but three times the running life,” he said.

Kubo said NEC will initially supply fuel cells for its own laptops late next year, and cell phones in 2005 and will then probably seek to license the technology to other battery makers. NEC subsidiary Tokin Corp. could possibly produce the cells, but that hasn’t been decided yet.

IDC Japan estimates that NEC sold 1.6 million laptops worldwide last year, coming in seventh with a 5.6 percent share. But 1.3 million of those were sold in Japan, where NEC claims number-one status with a 21.5 percent share where its customer base of first adopters lies. Similarly, NEC is nowhere on the international market with mobile phones, but in the domestic market the company claims a 32 percent share of mobile phones here, representing about 3 million units annually.

Beyond that, Kubo believes fuel cells will capture half the global market for mobile devices in the second half of the decade and NEC will capture “20-30 percent” of that.

These are big claims indeed, say analysts, who question assumptions that fuel cells will eat up huge market share. Up for grabs, says research firm Frost & Sullivan, is a world rechargeable-battery market that in 2001 was about $72.6 million for laptops, $5.4 million for PDAs and $396.2 million for mobile phones.

Barry Huret, president of Huret Associates Inc., a battery consulting company, called the rechargeable battery market “flat” and is skeptical that fuel cells will eat up market share anytime soon. “While many companies are working on miniaturized fuel cells, none of them seem to be there yet. Fifty percent seems very high to me — unless it is limited to specific segments — and then it will become a cost and availability issue. I don’t see it happening near-term,” he said.

NEC is in for some tough competition. Manhattan Scientifics Inc., MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc., Neah Power Systems Inc. and Toshiba Corp. are all touting commercialization of rival technologies in 2004.

Hyunji Lee, public relations officer for Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, said Samsung has developed a prototype for mobile phones, but won’t say when it will commercialize the product. Casio has a power pack prototype that the company says can drive a notebook for 20 hours and, according to spokesman Akira Watanabe, will hit the market in March 2005.

Such competition means NEC will at best be just another player, said Shinji Thomas Aquinas Shibano, Japan Research Institute Co. Ltd.’s science division general manager. “Carbon nanohorns are a good material and I think NEC’s technology has strong potential for high-power fuel cell batteries instead of low-power ones such as PDAs, where competitors are already making liquid-based fuel cell batteries,” he said.

Frost & Sullivan battery analyst Sara Bradford thinks NEC is “in line” with competitors, but capturing a third of the market is more doubtful. “At this point in the technology development and commercialization process, it is anyone’s guess at what type of design will ultimately succeed. As is, there are many barriers these designers will face once they finally commercialize the technology.”

“First,” she said, “what distribution channels will be best suited to get the product to the consumer? Will the OEMs of the equipment work seamlessly with the fuel cell developer for an integrated energy source?”

Kubo said decisions on these issues have yet to be made. And before any of this happens, NEC needs to reduce the cost of carbon nanohorns from today’s $500 a gram to just one dollar a gram.

March 24, 2003 — Case Western Reserve University of Cleveland announced that Chung-Chiun Liu, a professor of sensor technology and control and director of the Electronics Design Center at the university’s engineering school, received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

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Liu was among 10 individuals and six organizations to receive the award. Liu has mentored high school students for 16 years. His proteges have achieved top honors at national-level science fairs. His students’ research has focused on fuel cells and microelectrochemical sensors.

March 11, 2003 — MesoFuel Inc. of Albuquerque, N.M., and Jadoo Power Systems LLC of Folsom, Calif., announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop fuel cell products.

Under the collaboration, the companies will combine MesoFuel’s microscale technology-enabled hydrogen generators with Jadoo’s fuel cells in order to create portable hydrogen power systems that run longer than present systems.

Ardesta LLC, parent company of Small Times Media, is a MesoFuel investor.

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2003 — A federal program that sprinkles money on emerging technology research, including nanotechnology, is poised to perish under President Bush’s proposed 2004 budget.

The budget terminates the Department of Commerce’s Advanced Technology Program, requesting only $27 million for the cost of shutting it down. Last year, the program’s budget was about $184 million.

“The administration believes that other federal R&D programs have a clearer federal role and are of higher priority,” the budget document states. “Large shares of ATP funding have gone to major corporations, and projects often have been similar to those being carried out by firms not receiving such subsidies.”

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Commerce Department spokesman Trevor Francis said the administration has “long looked at the ATP program as something that does not fit into our nation’s priorities.”

“We believe private industry can do a better job at funding emerging technologies than the federal government can,” he said. “At a time of war and fiscal restraint, it’s not keeping with our national priorities.”

The fate of the ATP now moves to the hands of Congress, where the program has powerful allies, particularly in the Senate.

Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., who wrote the legislation that helped start the ATP during the first Bush presidency, will fight to keep the program alive, said spokesman Andy Davis.

“It’s a program he’ll continue to advocate for, quite strenuously,” he said. “The whole purpose of the program was to create public-private partnerships to invest in cutting-edge research, the exact kind of research that now is on the chopping block for companies.”

Republicans have routinely denounced the ATP as “corporate welfare” for nearly 10 years, starting when Newt Gingrich became speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995. As President Clinton struggled annually to make the program bigger, House Republicans toiled to kill it. Every year, the program was saved in the Senate. With severe budget constraints and Republicans controlling Congress, this may be the program’s riskiest year ever.

Between 1990 and 2002, the program received 5,451 proposals and granted 642 research and development awards. It doled out $2 billion in awards, which were met with a nearly equal industry investment, at $1.9 billion.

Given its highly multidisciplinary nature, nanotechnology does not fall into a specific research category at the program, making it difficult to determine how many grants paid for nanotechnology research. In its last award announcement, in October, the agency pledged $101.6 million to 40 research projects, at least seven of which had a small tech component. That batch of awards contained more nanotechnology projects than ever, said an ATP official.

The program was conceived as a pseudo-VC firm for the federal government, focusing on emerging technologies that were too risky for private investors, but held great promise for commercialization and society. Applicants for ATP grants must show, in great detail, how their product will be commercialized and demonstrate the product’s benefits to society.

The ATP matters because “it’s one of the few programs that really tries to transition technology to the nonmilitary sector,” said Joe Lichtenhan, president of Hybrid Plastics, in Fountain Valley, Calif.

“The government’s role in transitioning technology into the marketplace is absolutely critical, they are one of the three pillars the technology economy stands upon. The other two are corporations and angel investors,” Lichtenhan said.

“Not to criticize the president, but if you are looking to bolster this economy, increasing funding to a program like ATP makes a lot of sense, rather than killing it.”

Lichtenhan’s company received a roughly $2 million grant in 1998 to help commercialize its POSS nanomaterials, which increase strength and heat resistance and retard flammability when combined with a variety of plastics and polymers. “We could not have done it without the ATP,” he said. “We talked with numerous VCs and corporations and there was way too much risk for them to get involved with it.”

Parkash Kunda, business development director for eSpin Technologies Inc., a Tennessee nanofiber manufacturing company, said he was “surprised” by the president’s call to eliminate the ATP. eSpin received an ATP grant in October that will “help us scale up our manufacturing process and scale up our production,” he said. “This will help us penetrate a lot of different markets, and make (the product) much more affordable for a lot of different markets.”

He said he finds the administration’s antipathy toward the ATP ironic, given the president’s State of the Union address in January. “He talked about fuel cell technology, and I can see the ATP funding research” in that area.

Altair issued third patent


February 3, 2003

Feb. 3, 2003 — Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. received a patent related to its process for producing pigment-grade, titanium-dioxide containing solutions.

The patent, Altair’s third, offers environmental advantages over existing processes for making the pigments, which are used in fuel cells, batteries, thermal coatings, chemical catalysts and environmental cleanups, according to a news release. Altair said it has filed 12 other patents developed on the foundation of its three issued patents.

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EMERYVILLE, Calif. Dec. 18, 2002 — Charlie Janac thinks his company, Nanomix Inc., could be nanotechnology’s first hit company — that is, once people figure out how to pronounce its name.

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Nanomix, sounds like “genomics.”

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“Our goal is to become so famous it’s not even a question,” said Janac, the company’s chief executive.

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Nanomix, formerly Covalent Materials, is the brainchild of University of California, Berkeley, physicists Alex Zettl and Marvin Cohen. They developed a way to build carbon nanotube structures that act as chemical sensors. They are also working on developing hydrogen fuel tanks. Their primary strength has been using theoretical modeling to predict the behavior of nanostructures.

Janac thinks the company’s modeling expertise will make Nanomix a model for success in the nanotechnology business. In fact, Janac said, Nanomix might be for nanotechnology what Genentech Inc. was for biotech: the company that shows how to commercialize the science.

“Somebody has to create the model, and we think we have a rational model for getting from the lab to engineering to production to revenues to profit,” Janac said. It helps that Janac has an affinity for hard science (as a young researcher, he invented the backsheet for disposable diapers. He still grouses that his material of choice was passed over for something hundredths of a cent cheaper).

Nanomix has a long way to go before it can become nanotech’s Genentech. It’s out of the lab, but that’s just the first milestone. Next on the list: shipping test sensors to potential customers. That should happen in the first quarter of 2003. If it continues to hit its goals, Janac said, Nanomix will see its first revenues in 2003’s fourth quarter.

But big hurdles remain.

“The science is based on virtual reality — theoretical modeling — actually proving out in physical reality,” said Brock Hinzmann, technology navigator at SRI Consulting. “Engineering often takes a lot longer than what people think it should.”

Hinzmann said, too, that even if Nanomix nails the engineering and production issues, the company still has to figure out its business model, especially if it plans to sell $50 sensors into a market used to paying $3,000. That, of course, assumes it can get companies to adopt its technology, rather than those of competitors both inside and outside the nano space.

Hinzmann does think that Nanomix has a great scientific team, and said it may well get to market first.

Marc Rothchild, a senior analyst at San Francisco Consulting Group, said he believes that despite its challenges, “Nanomix has a good possibility of succeeding.” Its sensing technology has multiple applications, and he said the company has a good grasp on how to manufacture its products. “It’s just a matter of proving it.”

Janac is aware of the issues, and cautions that it will take Nanomix three to four years to generate positive cash flow. Nevertheless, he said, “we are probably going to be the first company to ship a complex nanodevice.”

Nanomix signed up some believers in September, landing a second round of funding for $9 million. Apax Partners and Sevin Rosen Funds led the round. EnerTech Capital Partners participated, as did first-round investor Alta Partners. Getting a second round of funding in the current market is significant, particularly for a nanotechnology firm.

“This round of funding gets us to production, or close to production, of our first product,” Janac says. “We’re taking the science out of the lab and into testing, real environments and market validation.”

The second round? Janac has a slide showing that it took nine months, 145 meetings with 41 venture funds, 21 different iterations of the company’s investor presentation and three term sheets. He estimates that he spent 80 percent of his time on closing the round. “I was talking to a VC the other day, and my wife asked me, ‘Why are you still talking to VCs?’ I told her, ‘I just can’t go cold turkey,'” Janac joked.

The truth is, Nanomix will eventually need more funding, at least some of it from strategic corporate investors. In particular, it will need to fund its work in hydrogen storage, which is where it thinks it has huge long-term potential. The company’s first prototype hydrogen fuel cell is hefty, and could only power a projector for a couple of hours. But it’s working on a new prototype.

For now, nanosensors are the focus of the business. If the model bears out, people will learn how to say Nanomix.

Nov. 20, 2002 — BASF AG has developed metal-organic “nanocubes” that can store and release hydrogen to power fuel cells for laptop computers and other portable electronic devices, according to Chemical Week.

The nanocubes absorb hydrogen under moderate pressure and could be used in cartridges to precisely control the release of hydrogen to the fuel cell. The hydrogen-fed fuel cells could power portable devices for more than 10 hours, the company said in the report.

BASF said it has the technological capability to produce the 1-micrometer-square cubes in kilogram quantities, but it is seeking suitable material to make the cartridges.

Oct. 10, 2002 — Plug Power Inc., a fuel cell provider based in Latham, N.Y., and research and development outfit Albany Nanotech, announced a joint R&D partnership to integrate nanotechnology and proton exchange membrane fuel cell technologies, according to a news release.

The program is intended to last five years and cost $5 million. Funds will come from Plug Power, Albany Nanotech, state and federal grants and other sources, according to Michael Fancher, Albany Nanotech’s director of economic outreach, who said the fund-raising process will be ongoing.

Technical goals include developing the next generation of fuel cell catalyst nanostructures. The program is also intended to help Plug Power decrease costs and improve the performance and reliability of its fuel cells.

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Sept. 23, 2002 — AMR Technologies Inc. doesn’t like to bill itself as a nanotechnology company. It’s a materials company, period. It just so happens the materials are getting smaller and improving existing products.

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The Canadian firm focuses primarily on rare earths. These are the dozen or so elements found on the very bottom of the periodic table — elements with names as intuitive as cerium, lanthanum and praseodymium. “One of the biggest challenges we face is just getting people to understand what rare earths are, and what it is we are doing,” said Constantine Karayannopoulos, AMR’s executive vice president.

Yet these rare earths can be engineered into products to be used in catalytic converters, Styrofoam cups and television displays.

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Most of the company’s $700,000 worth of nanotechnology-related products sold in the first six months 2002 concern automotive catalysis. Catalytic converters function thanks to rare earths fixed onto a ceramic brick-like substrate. The noxious fumes created by the vehicle go into the brick, causing a chemical reaction with the rare earths and other metals. Out come less hazardous elements like nitrogen, oxygen, water and carbon dioxide.

With emissions regulations and performance requirements turning tougher, these ceramic bricks become hotter and hotter, going up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. The automotive industry needs materials that will remain stable at such temperatures, without flaking or breaking.

That’s where nano comes in. Once cerium and zirconium are broken down to nanosize, a more thermally stable synthesized material is created. The products are made to measure for automotive catalyst producers.

Research labs are located Abingdon, England. They are run by James Woodhead, a 75-year-old chemist with 50 patents to his name. The work being done by Woodhead and his team of three is kept pretty hush-hush, but it is encouraging enough for the company to open a larger nanotechnology center in early 2003 and to plan to double staffing in the new facility.

However exciting the science, AMR technologies remains a business and one that is not hugely profitable. Despite a profitable second quarter, the company reported a loss of $364,000 in the first six months of the year, on sales of $22 million, following many years of moderate profitability. “It is an interesting business, with interesting prospects, but it has been very inconsistent on the profit side,” said analyst Steven Laciak of National Bank Financial.

Its stock price is another one of AMR Technologies’ challenges. It has been trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange at around $0.80 in September, down from a high of nearly $1.30 in January. But the main difficulty stems from the illiquidity of the stock. The price of the 16.5 million shares outstanding tends to shoot up or down anytime anyone buys or sells it.

In the future, AMR Technologies is looking to engineer its rare earths even further. It also plans to develop nanocoatings for electronic systems. “There is such a diverse number of materials wanted by the world,” Woodhead said. “It used to be that people wanted cheap, but they don’t want cheap anymore — they want materials that work.”

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Company file: AMR Technologies Inc.
(last updated Sept. 23, 2002)

Company
AMR Technologies Inc.

Ticker symbol
AMR.TO (Toronto Stock Exchange)

Headquarters
121 King Street West
Suite 1740
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5H 3T9

History
Founded by Peter Gundy in 1993, via the purchase of controlling interest in two Chinese rare earth suppliers

Industry
Materials

Small tech-related products and services
AMR is a leading global supplier of rare earths and zirconium, used in industrial applications ranging from electronics to solid oxide fuel cells to catalytic converters. The company also manufactures neodymium-based magnetic powders for use in the electronics and automotive industries.

Management

  • Peter V. Gundy: chairman, chief executive officer and president

  • Constantine E. Karayannopoulos: executive vice president

  • Geoffrey R. Bedford: chief financial officer and vice president of finance

    • Employees
    Approximately 1,100 at locations in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Barbados, Korea, Japan, Thailand and China.

    Investment history
    In order to amass working capital and purchase Chinese rare earths plants in 1993, AMR raised (U.S.) $19 million.
    The company raised an additional (U.S.) $3.6 million at the time of its 1995 transfer to the Toronto Stock Exchange.
    The following entities have invested in AMR:

  • WhiteRock Partners (19.95 percent)

  • Investors Group (16.46 percent)

  • Company management and directors 15.6 percent)

    • Selected strategic partners and customers

  • School of Material Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore

  • Singapore Economic Development Board

  • Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research

  • Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

  • Cambridge University

    Revenue
    $47 million (2001)
    $22 million (first half of 2002)

    Barriers to market

  • Rare earths is a comparatively small industry

  • Competitors control a good deal of the market

    • Competitors

  • Rhodia

  • Shin Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

  • Nippon Yttrium Co., Ltd.

    • Goals
    In the short term, AMR Technologies hopes to turn around the magnetics division and spin off zirconium activities. In the long term, the company expects to invest heavily in nanotechnology research through its research and development center in Britain.

    Why they’re in small tech
    “As a chemical engineer, it’s a very creative business because you get to put things together and precisely engineer materials. You start with a sheet of paper and you come back with some fascinating stuff that people are willing to pay for,” says Constantine Karayannopoulos, executive vice president.

    What keeps them up at night
    “What literally keeps me up are calls from the plants in Asia in the middle of the night. We are small, but we have the problems of a multinational. However, we also have a front-row seat to what is happening in China, which is very exciting and hugely important for the Chinese people.”

    Contact

  • URL: www.amr-ltd.com

  • Phone: 416-367-8588

  • Fax: 416-367-5471

  • E-mail: [email protected]

    • Recent news
    Canadian nanofirm links with Singapore

    — Research by Gretchen McNeely