POMPANO BEACH, Florida (March 18, 2006). A new patent was just issued to Apollo Energy Systems, Inc. for an ALKALINE FUEL CELL WITH CIRCULATING ELECTROLYTE (U.S. Patent Number 7,014,944 B2).
This unique fuel cell is the only one of its kind being developed in the United States with a circulating electrolyte system which solves heat and water management problems plagued by other low temperature fuel cells. The new fuel cell was originally developed by Union Carbide Company (UCC) in Ohio in the 1960s for NASA’s Apollo Moon Mission. Fuel cells were also developed for General Motors, Ford and the U.S. Navy. General Motors installed one in its “ELECTROVAN” which operated successfully for over 1,000 hours. The UCC fuel cell program was headed up by Dr. Karl Kordesch, one of the world’s top fuel cell scientists, who eventually accumulated over 150 patents on Alkaline Fuel Cells, Batteries and related products.
The Alkaline Fuel Cell is known as the “Rolls Royce” of fuel cells with a higher voltage and efficiency than any of the other four types of fuel cells. It also had a “Rolls Royce” price, NASA paying $600,000 per kilowatt for the Space Fuel Cell. (To put this in perspective, the average home requires a 5 to 7-kilowatt fuel cell to replace the power from the grid. Imagine a $4.2 million fuel cell in your garage supplying power to your house).
In 1976, Dr. Kordesch accepted a position with the Technical University of Graz in Austria to head up the Institute for Chemical Technology (TUG). UCC transferred its fuel cell technology to TUG and Dr. Kordesch continued the development (UCC went out of business due to an explosion and fire in its factory in India which killed over 2,000 persons).
In 1997 Apollo made an agreement with Dr. Kordesch and TUG to further develop the fuel cell and take the cost out of it. This work was completed in 2005 when the technology was transferred to Apollo in Florida. The cost of the fuel cell was reduced from $600,000 to $188 per kilowatt (that price can be attained in mass production). The cost is low enough for the auto industry to use Apollo Alkaline Fuel Cells in mass produced Fuel Cell Vehicles. And the power of the fuel cell was doubled from 200 milliamps per square centimeter of electrode to 400 milliamps.
Apollo is now building a fuel cell plant in Pompano Beach, Florida to produce the UCC/Kordesch Alkaline Fuel Cell.
APOLLO FUEL CELL Model G250 (left) and Model G500 (right)
Latest
generation electrodes for Apollo™ Fuel Cell made by Raymond Douglas and Matt
Dyer
Pompano Beach, May 24, 2005
APOLLO ALKALINE FUEL CELL PATENT # U.S. 7,014,944 B2