Technological Milestones to Date
The following milestones have been achieved over the last three years:
- Designed and developed a new substrate material for the use in alkaline fuel cells;
- Radically reduced the number of parts needed to operate a fuel cell (the balance of plant);
- Changed the whole concept of the stack and system design into a single all encompassing unit;
- Tested and verified the half-cell design of the new electrode to over 3000 hours;
- Designed a new control system for electrode optimisation;
- Eliminated the need for a nitrogen pacification system;
- Designed a new CAN bus based voltage monitoring system.
Target Milestones
The seven new milestones that the Company is aiming to achieve, and to have independently verified by the team at Surrey University, are as follows:
| Milestone | Description | Target Completion |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (completed) | Small scale single cell 500 hours operation | April 2007 |
| 2 (completed) | First scaled single cell operation | June 2007 |
| 3 (completed) | Scaled single cell 500 hours operation | August 2007 |
| 4 (completed) | First prototype system operation | January 2008 |
| 5 (completed) | System operation 500 hours | February 2008 |
| 6 | Delivery of multiple systems to customer | August 2008 |
| 7 | Commercialisation | 2009 |
Professor Derek Pletcher of Southampton University states that the Company has a clear and achievable goal that differs in emphasis from other companies developing fuel cells.