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To: John Finley who wrote (683)	2/3/2000 1:08:00 AM
From: allen v.w.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 942

FYI all, NEW FUEL for automotive PEM FC. Daimler Benz is involved with this company. Do your DD. News is from 2/2/00: TULSA, Okla., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Syntroleum Corporation (Nasdaq: SYNM) announced today that Northwest Power Systems, a leading manufacturer of patented fuel cell components, subsystems and fully integrated systems, has certified Syntroleum synthetic hydrocarbon fuels as an effective on-board source of hydrogen to power fuel cells. In reaching its determination, Northwest Power tested synthetic diesel and synthetic gasoline made using Syntroleum Corporation's natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) conversion technology. Syntroleum fuels contain virtually no sulfur, aromatics or metals. The absence of these contaminants in Syntroleum fuels offers significant environmental benefits and an important reduction of fuel cell manufacturing and operating costs. Conventional petroleum diesel must be passed through a heated absorbent bed to remove sulfur compounds prior to being fed into the fuel processor. No such absorbent bed is necessary when processing Syntroleum synthetic fuel. The elimination of this step could lower manufacturing and operating costs of fuel cell fuel processors. Successful use of this synthetic diesel in fuel cells further demonstrates the enabling power of Syntroleum's technology. Synthetic fuels could be easily transported and stored using the existing fuel distribution infrastructure, allowing easier market access than for other fuels traditionally considered for fuel cells, such as methanol and compressed natural gas (CNG). Additionally, Syntroleum fuel has been demonstrated to significantly reduce exhaust emissions in conventional diesel engines. Taken together, these advantages establish synthetic fuels as not only an ideal complement to fuel cell technology, but also one that should help accelerate fuel cell commercialization. "The emerging fuel cell industry faces the same critical challenge that gas-to-liquids technology has faced since the 1920s -- that is the need to lower the capital and operating costs to make the technology economical. With economic GTL technology now available, we believe that the fuels produced by this technology will enable improvements in fuel cell technology in many applications," said Mark A. Agee, Syntroleum's President and Chief Operating Officer. "The lack of sulfur and other contaminants in Syntroleum fuels makes them especially attractive for use in fuel cell systems. Promising applications include residential power generation in remote and rural areas, as well as recreational, portable, and emergency power supplies," said David Edlund, Vice President of Technology at Northwest Power Systems. Syntroleum synthetic fuels performed as well or better than conventional fuels in the NPS fuel cell fuel processor. During short-term tests, Syntroleum diesel fuel yielded sufficient hydrogen to produce 9.05 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity from one gallon of fuel, and Syntroleum gasoline yielded sufficient hydrogen to produce 9.68 kWh of electricity from one gallon of fuel. Under comparable conditions, conventional petroleum-derived diesel fuel yielded sufficient hydrogen to produce 8.67 kWh of electricity from one gallon of fuel. The net result is that during these tests, Syntroleum fuels provided production rates that were 4.4% to 11.6% higher than for conventional fuels. For comparison with conventional power generation of equivalent scale, a commercial diesel generator set (4.8 kW maximum continuous, operating at half load) will produce about 6.9 kWh of electricity from one gallon of fuel, according to manufacturers' sales specifications. For all of these fuels, the hydrogen produced by Northwest Power's fuel processor is exceptionally high, i.e., greater than 99.95% with less than one part per million (ppm) carbon monoxide (CO) and less than five ppm carbon dioxide (CO2). Founded in 1996, Northwest Power Systems is a closely held Bend, Oregon, company owned predominantly by IDACORP Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of IDACORP, Inc. (NYSE: IDA). NPS develops and commercializes fuel processors and fuel-cell systems for low-power stationary, portable, recreational, and emergency/backup applications. Syntroleum Corporation is the leading provider of technology for converting natural gas into synthetic liquid hydrocarbons. Current licensees include ARCO, Enron, Kerr-McGee, Marathon, Repsol-YPF and Texaco. The company is also working with DaimlerChrysler and others on the development of super-clean synthetic diesel fuels.