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Gold/Mining/Energy : Global Thermoelectric - SOFC Fuel cells (GLE:TSE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: raisinkane who wrote (2659)7/20/1999 5:28:00 AM
From: Scoobah  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 6016
 
This excerpt from last weeks press release, speaks to your post,

No
further purification of the product hydrogen is necessary with
Northwest Power's fuel processor before passing it into any
conventional PEM fuel cell stack.

Thursday July 15, 10:01 am Eastern Time

Company Press Release

SOURCE: Northwest Power Systems

Northwest Power Systems Develops
Diesel Fuel Processor

BEND, Ore., July 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwest Power Systems
(NPS), under contract to Sandia National Laboratories, a prime
contractor to the U.S. Department of Energy, announced today that
it successfully tested a new fuel processor that converts diesel into
high-purity hydrogen. Without need for further purification, the
hydrogen was fed to a proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) fuel cell
that produced electricity.

NPS developed the diesel fuel processor for use in fuel cell
systems that can generate electricity for use in homes, schools and
businesses in remotely located villages of Alaska. The technology
breakthrough enhances NPS's prospects for rapid
commercialization of fuel cells for both stationary and portable
applications, worldwide.

Northwest Power previously demonstrated a kerosene fuel
processor for Arctic applications. Both the diesel and kerosene
fuel processors will be automated and tested this fall with fuel
cells that NPS purchases from independent manufacturers.

''Our longer-term objective is to complete all field testing of a
series of fully-integrated fuel cell systems for residential
applications in rural Alaska in the year 2000,'' said Guggenheim.
''Diesel is a bonus for us and Sandia because of the widespread
distribution of this fuel in Alaska and elsewhere.''

The successful diesel fuel processor demonstration culminated a
week-long effort in which the Company produced hydrogen from
kerosene, bio-diesel, petroleum diesel and a proprietary
nonflammable liquid feedstock in a single fuel processor. The fuel
processor is a proprietary design that incorporates hydrogen
purification as part of the fuel processor. The product hydrogen
from all four of the test fuels was greater than 99.8% pure with
less than one part per million (ppm) of carbon monoxide and less
than one ppm of carbon dioxide.
These contaminants can poison a PEM fuel cell irreversibly. No
further purification of the product hydrogen is necessary with
Northwest Power's fuel processor before passing it into any
conventional PEM fuel cell stack.

NPS already has developed a fuel processor that converts
methanol to hydrogen. The Company is developing ethanol,
propane and, most recently, natural gas, models that provide
needed hydrogen for PEM fuel cell systems. PEM fuel cells run
quietly with no combustion cycle and no moving parts.

Founded in 1996, Northwest Power Systems is a subsidiary of
IDACORP Technologies, Inc., Boise, Idaho.

SOURCE: Northwest Power Systems
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