Fuel Cell

Hydrogenics Corp (HYGS) announced that the Company has undertaken a second work order with ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures LLC under the master services agreement signed between the two companies earlier this year. Hydrogenics' contract is for the provision of engineering and product- related services to integrate a fully packaged hydrogen generator based on proprietary natural gas reforming technology being developed by ChevronTexaco. Plans for the facility include ultimately having the capacity to generate 150 kg/day of hydrogen to serve the fueling needs of a fleet of fuel cell demonstration buses at AC Transit in Oakland, California. The station...

Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc (QTWW) fell as much as 10% after the company posted second-quarter results that fell below expectations. They posted a loss of 10 cents a share on sales of about $5 million vs. a loss of 9 cents a share on sales of $6.7 million a year ago. Analysts were expecting a loss of 6 cents a share on sales of $8.6 million. The company said the sales decline was due to lower product sales in its fuel cell systems segment. Shares are now trading off the lows and are currently only down 6%....

Plug Power Inc (PLUG) announced that its GenCore® 5T hydrogen fuel cell product is currently providing electricity for the holiday tree located in London at Trafalgar Square. The GenCore 5T fuel cell system is currently providing up to 5kW of power to the tree 24 hours a day. This year the lights only require approximately 4.5kW of power which is a significant reduction over last year due to the introduction of new low voltage bulbs that are more energy efficient.

DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX) reported Thursday that it doubled the number of fuel cell powered vehicles it manages in the United States in December. The company said it is preparing 19 vehicles for customers in California and Michigan. The vehicles include the Mercedes F-Cell passenger car and medium-duty Dodge Fuel Cell Sprinter van.

Astris Energi Inc. (ASRNF) announced that it has commenced marketing of its new, silent-running, emission-free, Model E7 AFC Generator. The E7 is an advanced version of the Model E6 power unit that has successfully powered Astris' Freedom Golf Car for the past three years. The E7 is built with two 900W Astris' POWERSTACK(tm) MC250 alkaline fuel cell stacks giving the unit a 1.8kW nominal power rating with the ability for maximum power output to reach 2.15kW, a 20% overload factor. The Model E7 is designed as a direct replacement for existing traction batteries used in a wide variety...

Fuel cell company stocks slumped Tuesday afternoon after Smith Barney Citigroup initiated coverage of FuelCell Energy Inc. and Mechanical Technology Inc. with conservative ratings. The firm rated FuelCell Energy shares at "Sell," and Mechanical Technology at "Hold." Both companies received a $7 target price.

Medis Technologies Ltd. (MDTL) announced that yesterday it made available functional prototype fuel cell Power Packs and fuel cartridges to General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD - News) for testing in connection with an advanced, rugged personal digital assistant (PDA) being developed for the U.S. Department of Defense. Each Medis Power Pack is currently capable of delivering five watts and five volts of continuous power. The Medis technical team will work closely with General Dynamics to evaluate the ability of the Power Packs and cartridges to meet extended mission requirements and military environmental...

The automotive fuel cell industry now stands out as a glimmering beacon in the supply chain's vertical landscape. Driven by factors ranging from homeland security to diminishing natural resources, the fuel cell supply chain market will explode to somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion by 2012, according to analysts at ABI Research.

Pacific Fuel Cell Corp (PFCE) announce that it has acquired rights to a new Methanol Resistant Cathodic Catalyst for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells and has filed a provisional patent in the name of the co-inventors, Professor Yushan Yan and Dr. Xin Wang. This new catalyst should eliminate the mixed potential problem at the cathode, and thus significantly increase the fuel cell efficiency.

Mechanical Technology Inc (MKTY) announced today that it has received required safety certifications from Underwriter's Laboratories Inc. (UL) and CSA International (CSA) for its micro fuel cell MTI Micro's Mobion(TM) power packs for military and industrial markets. It is targeted for shipment by the end of 2004 for use in logistics and warehousing applications (such as RFID tag readers) where shorter run-time and re-charge maintenance of traditional batteries can reduce worker productivity.

BOC Group PLC (BOX) has been awarded a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant for a 3-year, $3.8 million project to develop an advanced hydrogen generation and delivery system. BOC, as the project leader, is partnering with Canada-based Membrane Reactor Technologies (MRT) and HERA Hydrogen Storage Systems Inc. (HERA) to develop and demonstrate advanced hydrogen generation and delivery systems that integrate MRT's membrane reactor and HERA's thermal hydride compression into a single package. The companies are working to develop a solution for the economic and technical challenge of delivering low-cost, high-purity hydrogen to industrial users, vehicles and stationary/mobile...

Fuelcell Energy Inc (FCEL) announced today that Chevron Energy Solutions, a ChevronTexaco (NYSE: CVX - News) subsidiary and FuelCell Energy distribution partner, has sold a 250-kilowatt Direct FuelCell® (DFC®) power plant to the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS's) San Francisco Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC). Chevron Energy Solutions will develop, engineer and construct the project over the next year and provide a turn-key on-site generation solution to the facility. FuelCell Energy will provide the DFC300A power plant, technical support and system commissioning services.

The Dow Chemical Company (DOW) and General Motors Corp. (GM), launched the second phase of their joint project to prove the viability of hydrogen fuel cells for motor vehicles and possibly for distributed power generation. The project has now expanded from a single GM test cell, installed in February 2004, to a multi-cell pilot plant at Dow's Texas Operations in Freeport, TX. "In the first phase of this project, we collectively learned a lot about generating power from byproduct hydrogen via fuel cell technology, and now we're ready to build on what we've learned," said Gordon Slack, Dow's...

Plug Power Inc (PLUG) introduced three new product configurations designed specifically for the electric utility substation backup market. The hydrogen-fueled GenCore® 5-kilowatt fuel cell system, designed to provide extended run backup power, is now available with floating ground in 48Vdc, 108Vdc and 120Vdc outputs to meet the unique requirements of electric utility distribution and transmission substations. The Company is accepting orders for the floating ground systems and expects to begin shipments next month. These new configurations complement the 24Vdc positive ground and 48Vdc positive and negative ground GenCore® systems currently available.

Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc (QTWW) announced that it has entered into an agreement whereby Quantum will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Starcraft Corporation (STCR) in a stock-for-stock exchange valued at approximately $185 million The combined company will have an extensive range of operational expertise in areas such as vehicle systems design, powertrain engineering, systems integration, validation, assembly and service readiness for traditional vehicles, alternative fuel platforms, and hydrogen-based fuel cell vehicles. QTWW is trading down in the pre-market and STCR is trading up, which is typical when these types of events occur....

Air Products and Chemicals Inc (APD) announced today that it will expand its Baytown, Texas facility to produce 70 million standard cubic feet per day of hydrogen. A portion of the hydrogen produced will be supplied to the adjacent ExxonMobil Baytown Refinery under a long-term agreement, with the remainder transported through the Air Products West Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline system to other customers. Currently this increased production will primarily be used by ExxonMobil for petro-based fuels. The excess will be shipped out to APD's hydrogen pipeline system which could be used for future hydrogen needs.