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PRESS RELEASES
FLUOROCARBON MEMBRANES ONCE AGAIN IN THE CROSSHAIRS AS POLYFUEL REPRISES PORTABLE FUEL CELL PERFORMANCE SHOOTOUT
This Year, Passive Direct Methanol Fuel Cells are the Target at Popular Industry Seminar
PALM SPRINGS, CA – November 15, 2005 – PolyFuel, Inc., a world leader in engineered membranes for fuel cells, announced that it is reprising its real-time shootout between PolyFuel’s hydrocarbon-based fuel cell membrane, and Du Pont’s fluorocarbon-based Nafion® – this time focusing on “passive” direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). Like last year’s highly revealing contest – which focused on “active” direct methanol fuel cells, PolyFuel is expected to once again demonstrate superior operating performance – in this case, approximately up to 67% more power – under otherwise identical operating conditions. The shootout will occur at the annual Fuel Cell Seminar, being held in Palm Springs, CA.
Fuel cell designs are being readied the world over by the world’s leading battery and consumer electronics manufacturers to replace or augment batteries in increasingly power-hungry mobile electronics devices, and the thin, cellophane-like membrane is the heart of a fuel cell. For portable applications, where high-performance – i.e. long run times – and small size are key considerations, passive fuel cells are preferred, but technically more challenging. Unlike active fuel cells, which may employ small pumps to transfer fuel and water inside the fuel cell and fans to supply air and provide cooling, passive fuel cells depend mainly upon convection for the same purposes, and require higher concentrations of fuel – in this case methanol. This, in turn, places greater performance demands upon the membrane, which must be specifically engineered to withstand such high concentrations.
PolyFuel’s hydrocarbon DMFC membrane was shown last year in an active fuel cell test setup to demonstrate methanol and water crossover advantages over Nafion 117 under identical operating conditions, at Nafion-friendly methanol concentrations of 3%. At this year’s shootout, however, PolyFuel will increase the concentration to 12% – a value increasingly demanded by portable fuel cell designers as a minimum. PolyFuel’s membrane, which has been specifically designed for such high concentrations, routinely produces approximately 67% more power than Nafion at the 12% level. Methanol crossover and membrane swelling – two nagging side effects of high methanol concentrations – are minimal in the PolyFuel membrane. In the Nafion case, the methanol crossover rises to such a high level that it overwhelms the electrochemical reaction, limiting the power in respect to PolyFuel.
Attendees at this important industry seminar will be able to observe these differences for themselves, in real time, in both active – and now passive – designs. Nafion, which has been around for 40 years, is based upon the same fluorocarbon polymer used for Teflon®. PolyFuel’s recently introduced membrane uses a much newer – and to many, more promising technology, based upon a hydrocarbon polymer.
Like last year, the setups will be identical, differing only in the membrane. The passive cells will be operated at 40C, using ambient air, 8 milligrams (mg) total platinum catalyst loading per square centimeter, and SGL carbon gas diffusion layers (GDLs). Fuel concentrations of 3% (1 Molar) and 12% (4 Molar) will be used.
“Since last year’s shootout, we are seeing a significant shift among fuel cell system developers from the older fluorocarbon technology to our hydrocarbon DMFC membrane, as our customers confirm the performance advantages for themselves, in their own labs,” said Jim Balcom, president and CEO of PolyFuel. “The shootout will expose virtually the entire fuel cell community to our performance benefits in the technically more challenging area of passive fuel cells.” Among fuel cell designers, said Balcom, high-performance passive fuel cells are the “brass ring.” “Robustness under high fuel concentrations, fewer moving parts, low weight and small size are the goal, and we believe that we are the only practical way to get there,” he said. “And at an expected 67% performance advantage over Nafion, it’s no contest.”
The market for portable fuel cells is predicted by NanoMarkets LLC to be US$1.1 billion by 2009 and US$2.6 billion by 2012. First commercial shipments are expected in 2006.
About PolyFuel
PolyFuel is a world leader in engineered membranes that provide significantly improved performance in fuel cells for portable electronic and automotive applications. The state of the art of fuel cells is essentially that of the membrane, and PolyFuel’s best in class, hydrocarbon-based membranes enable a new generation of fuel cells that for the first time can deliver on the long-awaited promise of clean, long-running, and cost-effective portable power.
PolyFuel’s has an unmatched capability to rapidly translate the system-level requirements of fuel cell designers and manufacturers into engineered polymer nano-architectures. Such capability – based on PolyFuel’s over 150 combined years of fuel cell experience, world-class polymer nano-architects, and a fundamental patent position covering more than 15 different inventions – also makes PolyFuel an essential development partner and supplier to any company seeking to advance the state of the art in fuel cells. Polymer electrolyte fuel cells built with PolyFuel membranes can be smaller, lighter, longer-running, more efficient, less expensive and more robust than those made with other membrane materials.
PolyFuel’s target customers are the world’s leading portable fuel cell system developers. Of the 17 such customers currently engaged, 11 are divisions of household brand name consumer electronics manufacturers, and fifteen of the seventeen are now testing or have tested PolyFuel’s fuel cell membrane material. Of the 15, eleven have completed their evaluation testing and all eleven have gone on to purchase PolyFuel’s membrane products. Five of the largest Japanese and Korean consumer electronics companies now rank PolyFuel’s membrane as the best portable fuel cell membrane available in the world today.
PolyFuel was spun out of SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) in 1999, after 14 years of applied membrane research. The company is based in Mountain View, California, and is publicly listed on the AIM stock exchange in London.
Editors’ Note: All trademarks and registered trademarks are those of their respective companies.
Additional background information is available at www.roeder-johnson.com.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements, including with respect to the development of the mobile fuel cell
market. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without
limitation, risks inherent in the development and commercialization of potential products. Actual results may differ
materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements.
PolyFuel securities have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and
may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons (within the meaning of Regulation S under the Securities Act) unless the
securities are registered under the Securities Act or an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act is available.
Hedging transaction involving any such securities may not be conducted unless in compliance with the Securities Act.
For more press information contact:
Abigail Johnson/Paul Michelson
Roeder-Johnson Corporation
+1 (650) 802-1850
http://email.roeder-johnson.com
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