NEWS

10Fuel Cells Bulletin June 2004

Contact: MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc, Albany, NY, USA.Tel: +1 518 533 2222, www.mtimicrofuelcells.com

Axane’s new product line

French-based Axane – a subsidiary ofAir Liquide – showcased the first

prototype of its new line of 2.5 kWePEM fuel cell products at the recentHannover Fair in Germany. Based on itsEvopac™ modular technological plat-form, the integrated system meets therequirements of off-grid/stand-aloneelectrical supply in small stationary orportable generators.

Combining the fuel cell and its fuel supply ina single integrated unit facilitates energy man-agement, and provides an optimized ‘plug &play’ system approach. The new design, basedon the proprietary Evopac technology devel-oped by Axane, was successfully proven inspring 2002 during the Polar Ice Cap Missionby Dr Jean-Louis Etienne [FCB, March 2004].

The new product line, comprising three sys-tems rated at 2.5 kWe, will be available in thesecond half of 2004.

Contact: Axane Fuel Cell Systems, Sassenage, France.Tel: +33 4 7643 6047, www.axane.fr

Honda FCX with newstack in California, NY

Honda R&D Americas has begunpublic road tests in California of its

2005 Honda FCX fuel cell vehicle,which is equipped with the newHonda fuel cell stack with improvedcold-start performance [FCB, April]. Thecompany delivered two hydrogen-powered FCX vehicles to the city ofSan Francisco as part of its ongoingcustomer lease program, and will placea vehicle in New York in the fall.

The New York test program will play a criti-cal role in proving the cold-weather perfor-mance capabilities of the Honda FCX and thebreakthrough Honda FC stack, which has theability to start in temperatures as low as –20°C(–4°F). The US tests follow successful testingon the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidolast winter. The new Honda stack produces33% more power (86 kWe) than the previousversion, using a new aromatic electrolyte mem-brane with greatly improved durability.

Honda’s experimental Home Energy Station(HES) at Torrance in California [FCB, Decem-ber 2003] will supply hydrogen for the road

tests there. The HES generates hydrogen fromnatural gas for use in FCVs, while supplyingelectricity and heat for the home.

San Francisco joins Los Angeles as the firstAmerican cities to embrace Honda fuel celltechnology; Los Angeles took delivery of its firstFCX in December 2002. The addition of SanFrancisco as a Honda FCX customer brings to12 the number of Honda fuel cell cars on theroad in the US and Japan.

Contact: Honda R&D Americas, Torrance, California,USA. Tel: +1 310 781 5500, www.hondaresearch.com

Venture capital for P21

The German PEM fuel cell developerP21 GmbH has concluded its first

round of institutional financing, with�6 million from an international con-sortium of leading venture capitalinvestors.

Founded in 2001 as a spinoff from theVodafone/Mannesmann Group, Munich-basedP21 plans to use the new capital to launch itsfuel cell system for emergency power supply inthe growing uninterruptible power supply(UPS) market, especially for mobile communi-cation base stations.

The lead investor is UK-based ConduitVentures, which specializes in investments in thefuel cells and hydrogen technology sector. Otherinvestment partners include Target Partners inMunich and TechFund Capital Europe and itsassociated fund CDC Ixis Innovation in Paris.In 2002 P21 secured �1.3 million in seedfinancing from a private investor, softwaretycoon Eberhard Färber, and tbg in Bonn.

P21’s chief executive officer is Dr GüntherDietrich, who was chief technical officer at theBallard-DaimlerChrysler-Ford joint ventureXcellsis before joining P21.

Contact: P21 GmbH, Munich, Germany. Tel: +49 89607 45720, www.p-21.de

Or contact: Conduit Ventures Ltd, London, UK. Tel:+44 20 7468 7468, www.conduit-ventures.com

US stationary fuel cellsstandard is first in series

Ohio-based CSA America, a leadingstandards development organiza-

tion, has published the first of 15 newleading-edge standards it is developingfor the global use of fuel cells. Theseries will focus on facilitating the har-monization of global standards and

regulations for fuel cell applications byestablishing requirements for theinstallation, performance and inter-changeability of selected fuel cells andfuel cell power systems.

The first standard to be published has beenapproved as a national standard in the US bythe American National Standards Institute asANSI/CSA America FC 1-2004, StationaryFuel Cell Power Systems. The FC 1 standardincludes requirements for the operation, con-struction and performance of stationary fuelcell power systems, and is intended to set newguidelines incorporating a wider range of fuelsand technologies.

The new FC 1 standard supersedes the previ-ous ANSI Z21.83-1998, Fuel Cell Power Plants,which was also developed by CSA America. Thenewest standard incorporates the latest industrytechnologies, and includes new requirements forfuels such as hydrogen, methanol, ethanol,kerosene, diesel, gasoline, natural gas, methanegas mixtures and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

CSA America serves as the US TechnicalAdvisory Group administrator to theInternational Electrotechnical Commission’sTechnical Committee, IEC TC 105 on Fuel CellTechnologies. The IEC is facilitating the devel-opment of a series of international standards forthe global use of fuel cells, which are also beingused as seed documents for a new series ofANSI/CSA standards. CSA America is alsoworking with the International Organization forStandardization (ISO) to facilitate developmentof an ISO standard for hydrogen generatorsusing fuel-processing technologies.

To buy a copy of ANSI/CSA America FC 1-2004,Stationary Fuel Cell Power Systems, go to:www.shopcsa.ca

For more information on CSA America, go to:www.csa-america.org

Quantum wins militarycontract for mobile hydrogen refueler

The National Automotive Center inthe US Army’s Tank-Automotive

Research, Development & EngineeringCenter (TARDEC-NAC) has expanded itscontract with California-basedQuantum Technologies to include thedevelopment of a transportable hydro-gen refueler. The HyHauler Plus™ willbe used to support the hydrogen fuelcell powered light-duty off-road vehi-cle currently being developed as part