Category Archives: Fuel Cells

Jan. 31, 2007 — PolyFuel, Inc., a Mountain View, Calif. company engineering fuel cell membranes for the portable electronic and automotive industries, announced today the appointment of Mr. Don MacDonald to the company’s board of directors, effective March 1st, 2007.

MacDonald is a highly-experienced technology executive, having worked at Intel Corporation for 19 years. He currently holds the position of vice president and general manager for global marketing and branding, and is responsible for an annual budget in excess of $1 billion. Previously, MacDonald held a number of other senior level marketing positions at Intel including marketing director – mobile and handheld products, and marketing director – Intel Japan.

Jim Balcom, president and CEO of PolyFuel commented: “Don makes an excellent addition to PolyFuel’s board, particularly with his proven expertise in introducing, branding, and marketing leading edge technologies on a global scale. With the commercial rollout of portable fuel cells imminent, coupled with Don’s significant understanding of the mobile and handheld markets, the timing is perfect.”

MacDonald commented on his posting and on the opportunity: “The management of PolyFuel has made rapid progress in establishing the company as a key technology leader and I have been impressed by what they have achieved. I look forward to working with the company as the fuel cell market – particularly in service to increasingly power-hungry portable devices – transitions from a developmental phase to full commercial realization on a global scale.”

Nov. 28, 2006 — The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has placed a $11.5 million dollar order for seven FEI microscopes that will form the core of the University’s new Center for Electron Nanoscopy (CEN).

The order represents the largest product sale ever for FEI and includes two Titan scanning/transmission electron microscopes (S/TEMs), a Tecnai 20S-Twin TEM, a Helios NanoLab 600 DualBeam, a Quanta 200 3D ESEM DualBeam, a Quanta FEG SEM and an Inspect S low-vacuum SEM.

The range of equipment will be utilized for a wide spectrum of advanced research conducted by DTU’s researchers and companies that operate at the university.

The company said one of the Titan S/TEMs will be equipped with an environmental chamber and will be used for collaboration between DTU and FEI to advance environmental TEM (ETEM) applications for in-situ catalyst observations.

Such studies could play an important role in catalyst research and development for alternative fuel cells, environmental catalysis (clean air and water), and petrochemical industries. In addition, some of the equipment will be used to teach entry level SEM applications for the university’s curriculum.

“Uniquely, one of the Titans at DTU will combine aberration correction and monochromation with the ability to introduce gases into the electron microscope,” said commented Rafal Dunin-Borkowski, director of the new center, in a prepared statement. “This will allow catalyst materials to be studied in their working environment with ultimate spatial resolution. Such capabilities are a big step forward for the development of new materials and nanotechnology in general.”

Installation of the systems is targeted for the second half of 2007 and DTU’s Center for Electron Nanoscopy is scheduled to open at the end of 2007.

Nov. 13, 2006 — MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc., an Albany, N.Y., developer of micro fuel cell technology for handheld electronic devices and a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Inc., announced delivery of next-generation fuel cell-powered prototype units to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. This is the first in a series of planned deliveries resulting from the alliance formed between MTI Micro and Samsung in May 2006.

MTI Micro is developing next-generation fuel cell prototypes based on its patented direct methanol fuel cell technology known as Mobion. Together, the two companies are exploring ways to potentially power a series of Samsung’s mobile phone and mobile phone accessories with fuel cell technology so new media-rich features can be added.

“In next generation cellular phones, features like mobile satellite TV, streaming video, 3D gaming and other multimedia applications will consume even more power,” said Peng Lim, CEO of MTI Micro Fuel Cells, in a prepared statement. “Traditional power sources like lithium-ion batteries cannot keep pace with OEM desires to incorporate these media-rich features in future consumer electronic devices.”

According to Frost & Sullivan, the market for micro fuel cells for consumer electronic devices will reach approximately 80 million units by 2012.

MTI Micro and Samsung are cooperating to develop, test, and evaluate Mobion prototypes for various mobile phone applications.

Nov. 7, 2006 — NanoDynamics Inc., a Buffalo, N.Y, diversified nanotechnology and nanomaterials manufacturing company, announced that it will introduce its new NDRevolution 50H portable hybrid solid oxide fuel cell system at the 2006 Fuel Cell Seminar, to be held Nov. 13 to Nov. 16 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

“This system proves the viability of micro tubular SOFCs in portable power applications, successfully moving the technology from the realm of science project to a commercially available product,” said Caine Finnerty, director of technology, in a prepared statement.

The unit is compatible with a variety of commonly available gaseous hydrocarbon fuels including propane and butane. The 50-watt system offers, a fully regulated 12 Volt / 50 Watt power output with a 150 percent overload capacity. This is intended to make the Revolution 50H an ideal power source for recreational, military, commercial and industrial power needs including remote signage, communications, sensing and marine applications.

Oct. 17, 2006 — The New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) has awarded a grant of nearly $2 million to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany to help spur development of an Energy Test Farm that will enable innovative research on renewable energy technologies and generate significant economic impact.

The $1,922,000 award, made as part of NYSTAR’s Center for Advanced Technology Development Program, will support the efforts of CNSE’s Center for Advanced Technology in Nanomaterials and Nanoelectronics. The funding will be used to expand the capabilities of the CATN2 by creating an Energy Test Farm to evaluate zero energy concepts, based on the development and testing of nanomaterials and nanoelectronics for clean energy technologies, such as fuel cells, solar photovoltaic cells, ultracapacitors and power electronics.

The research will be conducted by CNSE in collaboration with several New York-based alternative energy companies, including DayStar Technologies of Halfmoon (solar photovoltaics), Plug Power Inc. of Latham (fuel cells), MTech Laboratories of Ballston Spa (power electronics) and Custom Electronics Inc. of Oneonta (ultracapacitors). The research is expected to develop new business opportunities for those firms, while at the same time attracting additional interest and investment from clean energy companies around the world.

Oct. 5, 2006 — Mexico’s national research petroleum institute, the Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo (IMP), opened its new center for advanced microscopy and research. In planning since 2002, the center features electron microscopy tools that enable advanced nanoscale research and development. The opening was announced jointly by IMP and FEI Co. of Hillsboro, Ore., on Wednesday.

The state-of-the-art center features FEI’s XL 30 environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM), a Nova 200 NanoLab, the first DualBeam installed in Latin America, two Tecnai transmission electron microscopes (TEMs), and FEI’s flagship product, a Titan S/TEM.

Researchers at IMP will use the tools for a variety of applications including the study and development of catalysts for more efficient fuels, fuel cell membranes and new nano-enabled materials such as anticorrosive products for oil refineries and pipelines, among others.

IMP is a fully decentralized and legally-independent public organization of the Federal Government of Mexico. Its fundamental objectives are the scientific research and technical development required for the petroleum, petrochemical and chemical industries; the supply of technical services to these industries; and the commercialization of services and technological products resulting from research. It is also responsible for the development of highly specialized human resources to support the areas in which the Institute and its associates are involved.

It’s not surprising that the world’s first nanocar would be invented by the Tour group. Jim Tour’s single-molecule nanocar made headlines late last year, not only in Nano Letters, where “Directional Control in Thermally Driven Single-Molecule Nanocars” was the single most-accessed paper in all American Chemical Society journals for the entire year, but in publications as diverse as The New York Times and Popular Mechanics.


Rice University Professor Jim Tour showed what can be accomplished when creativity is merged with perseverance. Photo courtesy of Rice University
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For a dubious public, a cool and easily understood gadget like the nanocar is just the thing to help explain why nanotechnology is potentially so useful. And the nanocar is a terrific test object for figuring out how to make molecules do what scientists and engineers want.

The nanocar earned Tour, the Chao Professor of Chemistry at Rice University and the director of the Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, an Innovation Award from Honda in 2005, as well as a Southern Chemist of the Year Award from the American Chemical Society.

The Tour group spent eight years perfecting the techniques used to make the nanocar, which has a chassis and freely rotating axles made of well-defined organic groups, with wheels made of Buckyballs. The entire car measures three to four nanometers across, and 30,000 of them could park in the width of that ubiquitous human hair. The trickiest part was attaching the wheels without destroying the rest of the car.

The group has already followed up the nanocar paper with another describing a light-driven motorized nanocar. Their objective is the eventual development of nanomachines for bottom-up manufacturing, in much the same way that nature uses enzymes.

Tour also has made it his mission to demystify nanotechnology for kids His NanoKids educational outreach program expresses complex chemical and physical concepts in accessible, videogame-style tools, for grades 6 through 12. The idea came to him when his six-year-old started doodling arms and legs onto a sketch of an organic molecule. The units are being tested this year with 9,000 students in 28 middle schools.

Jim Balcom

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Jim Balcom is president and CEO of Polyfuel, Inc., a leader in engineered membranes for fuel cells. Under Balcom, the company has pushed the limits of fuel cell performance. Polyfuel recently scored a major contract with Johnson Matthey, a U.K. manufacturer of fuel cell catalysts and, in July 2006, achieved ISO 9001 certification.
Photo courtesy of Polyfuel

Dan Gamota

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Dan Gamota, director of Printed Electronics Platforms at Motorola, is the force behind a consortium of big and small companies and academic researchers working on printable electronics. He has made his own big company a leader in developing printed active displays, which merge microelectronics, electroluminescent ink and nanotechnology.
Photo courtesy of Motorola

Magnus Gittins

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Magnus Gittins serves as CEO of Advance Nanotech, Inc. The company invests in nanotech ventures. Advance Nanotech sponsors particular researchers and obtains the right to commercialize any inventions. One of the company’s first investments, in sensor maker Owlstone Nanotech, recently hired a CEO and announced its first customers.
Photo courtesy of Advance Nanotech

Pradeep Haldar

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Pradeep Haldar, professor of nanoengineering at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the State University of New York at Albany, has made it his mission to produce “industry-ready” graduates for the nanotech sector. He established his school’s Nanotechnology Management Program, nicknamed “Nano+MBA,” which enrolled its first students this year.
Photo courtesy of State University of New York at Albany

Aug. 17, 2006 – Siargo Ltd. of Santa Clara, Calif., announced the release of its low power MEMS sensors for fuel cell systems, including a gas mass flow sensor for solid oxide fuel cells and a methanol concentration sensor for direct methanol fuel cells.

The flow sensor measures the temperature redistribution of the sensor surface which depends on the media’s mass as well as the media’s flow speed. The company says its sensors are well suited to the application because they consume less power while offering good accuracy and response time.

The methanol concentration sensor measures a full range of methanol’s concentration in water from 0 percent to 100 percent with real-time, in-line measurement capability. The typical maximum power consumed is 15mW.

The company is now offering single or multi-channel packaged evaluation sensor units that fuel cell system customers can integrate into their products.

by Phil LoPiccolo, Editor-in-Chief

While the MEMS market is currently fragmented, both in terms of the types of devices being produced and the companies producing them, over the next ten years, MEMS components will increasingly be integrated into modules that will replace existing electronics systems, and manufacturing will be absorbed by mainstream semiconductor companies. That was the message delivered in an “emerging technologies” presentation at SEMICON West by Jean-Christophe Eloy, GM of Yole Developpement, a market research and consulting group based in Lyon, France.

Among the most significant trends in the market is that MEMS technology is replacing a number of non-silicon devices and is migrating from the component sensors to integrated modules, noted Eloy, summarizing the results of the firm’s latest MEMS studies. For example, several companies, including Bosch, BEI Technologies, Invensense, and Honeywell, are developing MEMS-based inertial measurement systems to replace non-silicon accelerometers and gyroscopes for automotive and other applications, and firms such as Knowles and Akustica are merging silicon microphones into acoustic modules. Elsewhere, manufacturers are integrating MEMS devices into modules aimed at replacing optical auto-focus and zoom functions in mobile phones.

As a result of this trend, the global MEMS market is projected to double from $5 billion to nearly $10 billion in the next six years, according to Eloy (see figure, below). Beneath the overall 13% CAGR, individual applications will undergo widely varying rates of adoption, with some of the newest applications accounting for the fastest growth. For instance, the market for silicon microphones, which totaled just $65 million in revenues in 2005, is expected to grow 44% through 2010, largely from demand in mobile phone and laptop PC applications. RF MEMS acoustic resonators and switches, totaling $105 million last year, will expand at a 26% CAGR during the same period.

Meanwhile, market saturation will slow two of the current leading MEMS applications, inkjet heads and pressure sensors (each representing more than $1 billion in revenue), to just 6% and 7% CAGR, respectively. Segments estimated to expand at 10%-20% CAGR include accelerometers and gyroscopes, MOEMS for optical applications such as digital micromirror displays, and microfluidic devices to control and deliver fluid samples to microsensors. MEMS-based micro fuel cell technology — designed to replace batteries in small portable devices — is anticipated to emerge in 2009.

Drilling down to examine MEMS in mobile devices, Eloy showed that this segment will also follow steep curves for revenue growth and expansion into new applications. MEMS revenues in the mobile market were less than $200 million in 2005, almost exclusively from silicon microphones and RF acoustic resonators, but by 2009 they will exceed $850 million and include a host of other applications: accelerometers for human-machine interfaces and GPS devices, RF MEMS switches, auto-focus devices, oscillators, displays, portable projectors, micro fuel cells, and gyroscopes for image stabilization.

Demand for MEMS equipment and materials also is poised for solid growth. According to Eloy, revenues from sales of MEMS manufacturing equipment will rise from about $650 million to nearly $900 million over the next five years, thanks in large part to the growing demand by MEMS makers for etching technologies (notably deep reactive ion etch), as well as for wafer-level bonding equipment for packaging operations. Likewise, sales of materials and chemicals will ramp from just over $400 million at present to nearly $800 million by 2010, with Si and SOI wafers, quartz, and glass materials accounting for the bulk of the market as well as the biggest growth rate increases.

Surveying the firms currently involved in MEMS reveals a highly diversified landscape. Roughly a half dozen companies, led by Texas Instruments and Hewlett Packard, generate more than $200 million in MEMS revenues annually; about 25 bring in between $20 million and $200 million; and as many as 250 companies sell less than $20 million worth of MEMS devices/year. This latter group includes mainly systems manufacturers with internal MEMS fabs that produce a few thousand wafers per year for their own products.

However, Eloy predicted that in five years, more than half of all systems manufacturers with internal MEMS fabs will turn to external semiconductor manufacturers for MEMS production, and in 10 years, virtually all will have made the transition. “The semiconductor companies are really looking to produce added-value ICs by integrating MEMS technology,” he said. “By 2015, the global MEMS market will reach $18 billion, and 70% of it will be in the hands of semiconductor manufacturers.” — P.L.

Generates steam from deionized water; SEMICON West 2006, Esplanade Booth T-14, Technology Innovation Showcase Winner

July 6, 2006 — /BUSINESS WIRE/ — SAN DIEGO — RASIRC(TM), the steam purification company, introduces its first product, the Intaeger(R) UHP (Ultra High Purity) fully automated steam generator. The system benefits companies whose processes are sensitive to impurities and variability in their water vapor and are looking for an improvement in performance and safety over their present systems.

The Intaeger UHP is unique in that it provides ultra high purity steam and process control, yet is a safe, non-combustible system because it does not require hydrogen and oxygen to generate water vapor. Water contaminants, including dissolved gases, are removed, metallic impurity sources are eliminated, and particle sources are greatly reduced, resulting in purity equal to or better than that created by burning oxygen and hydrogen.

The Intaeger uses de-ionized water, which is inexpensive and widely available. A highly flexible system, it automatically controls delivery pressure, temperature, and the directly related mass flow rate so it can be adapted for many applications. Liquid level is monitored and filled either automatically or manually. An additional temperature control loop minimizes condensation of UHP steam. The system has purge and drain capabilities. Intaeger’s design enables the purifier to be located remotely from the steam generator, conserving critical space around the process tool. It can be operated locally or remotely.

Producing UHP water vapor using an Intaeger is an extremely efficient process, maximizing throughput. While alternative purification methods rely on flammable and explosive materials and often operate at temperatures greater than 700 degrees Celsius, Intaeger produces steam by boiling water. No hydrogen means no permits or bulk storage tanks are needed, storage of flammable gases in the facility is reduced, and low temperature operation allows for multiday runs without operator intervention. By running on de-ionized water instead of ultra high purity gases, the tool can pay for itself in months.

The Intaeger uses a non-porous hydrophilic membrane that selectively allows water vapor and steam to pass through it. Membrane selectivity is significant, as water molecules can pass through it 1,000,000 times faster than nitrogen molecules. In the vapor or steam phase, all other molecules are greatly restricted, so contaminants in water such as dissolved gases, ions, total organic carbons (TOCs), particles, viruses, bacteria, pyrogens, and metals can be removed from the purified steam.

Data from tests done on water vapor purified using the Intaeger system show reduction of 67 different metals to below detectable limits. Some contaminants have been verified to less than 0.0005 parts per billion. Nitrogen and CO2 contaminants can also be eliminated. Because Intaeger works with water at low pressures, alternative high purity piping material such as quartz and fluoropolymers can be used in the delivery system.

The Intaeger UHP system has applications in the medical and pharmaceutical, semiconductor, power, and fuel cell industries. Water vapor is used with rapid thermal processing (RTP), atomic layer deposition (ALD), plasma stripping, immersion lithography, diffusion, wafer cleaning, and to control humidity in cleanrooms.

“There are many choices when process requirements specify water vapor or steam,” said RASIRC founder and president Jeffrey Spiegelman. “These include bubblers, contactors, direct liquid injection (DLI), catalytic combustion, or pyrolytic torches. Bubblers and DLI are easy and safe to use, but water purity and system control are compromised. Pyrolitic torches give purity and system control, but can be dangerous and require special permits because they have a hydrogen base. Our Intaeger UHP system provides the safety and ease-of-use advantages of bubbler and DLI systems, while providing the purity and control of the pyrolitic systems, but without the risk. It can be adapted for almost any application because it can be configured for either high or low flow rates. As the need for UHP steam increases, a stand alone or sub-system solution will be needed to support the process tools, and the Intaeger UHP will be ready.”

About RASIRC

RASIRC was established March 7, 2005 to develop products that purify and deliver ultra pure liquids and gases, with a primary focus on water vapor. While steam is used extensively in the semiconductor industry, RASIRC technology is the first to purify live steam to generate ultra high purity (UHP) steam. Starting with de-ionized water and using specialized membranes to reduce total metals to less than 10 parts per trillion, this technology reduces cost, improves yield, and dramatically improves safety. The UHP steam generated by RASIRC products is of critical importance for many applications in the semiconductor, pharmaceutical, medical, biological, fuel cell, and power industries. For more information, contact Jeffrey Spiegelman at +1 858-259-1220, [email protected], or www.rasirc.com.

Contacts
RASIRC
Jeffrey Spiegelman, 858-259-1220
[email protected]
www.rasirc.com
or
A R Marketing, Inc.
Andrea Roberts, 858-451-8666
[email protected]