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Professor Dr. Karl Kordesch. was a Vice President and Director of the Company, having joined the Company in 1997 and was active in the day to day affairs of Apollo from his offices in Ohio and Austria. He was in charge of the Company's Fuel Cell Development at the Technical University of Graz, Austria, and the Technical University Vienna in Austria, heading up a team of scientists and engineers
He studied chemistry and physics at the University of Vienna, Austria, and received his Doctorate from that university in 1948.
From 1953 to 1955 he was a Scientific Staff member of the U.S. Signal Corp., Fort Monmouth, and managed its battery section which resulted in several patents assigned to the U.S. Government.
From 1955 to 1977, he worked for Union Carbide Corporation. He started out as a Scientist, Group Leader, then Department Head and finally Corporate Research Fellow in the fields of batteries and fuel cells. He was granted 60 patents in batteries and electrochemical systems, all assigned to Union Carbide.
He invented the Alkaline Primary Battery Cell which replaced the Zinc-Carbon flashlight batteries. Eveready, Energizer, Duracell and Rayovac now have 75% of the Alkaline Primary Cell market in the U.S.A. He developed Hydrazine and Alkaline Fuel Cells in cooperation with the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and NASA.
In 1966 he developed a new, thin carbon electrode and, based on this, his group built a 150 kW Alkaline Fuel Cell for the General Motors "Electrovan", and a 90 kW Alkaline Fuel Cell for the Ford Motor Company.
In 1970 he built an Alkaline Fuel Cell/Battery Hybrid Electric Car based on an A-40 Austin and drove it for his own personal transportation needs for over three years. The Fuel Cell was installed in the trunk of the car and hydrogen tanks on the roof, leaving room for 4-passengers in the 4-door car. Thus, he was the first person in the world to have produced and driven a practical Fuel Cell/Battery Electric Car.
While at Union Carbide, he also started development of a rechargeable alkaline flashlight battery which was later marketed under the Eveready brand.
In 1977 he took early retirement from Union Carbide and was offered the position as Full Professor to the chairs of Electrochemistry at the Technical University Vienna, Austria, -- or Head of the Institute of Inorganic Technology and Analytic Chemistry at the Technical University of Graz in Austria. He accepted the latter position and remained as Director of the Institute until 1992. He now serves as Professor Emeritus with that Institute with an office, laboratory and staff at his disposal.
While Director of the Institute at the Technical University of Graz, he directed work on electrochemical systems under contracts with Varta Batteries in Germany and other European battery manufacturers. He also headed the Austrian Government Scientific Program, managing a 1984-89 joint five-year program with eight different participating Austrian Universities and Industrial Groups covering Fuel Cell Systems, Zinc-Bromine Batteries, Bipolar Batteries, Catalysts, Environmental Studies, among others.
From 1981 to 1985 he served as Secretary General of the International Society for Electrochemistry (ISE) and is a member of several other scientific and technical societies. In 1986, he received the Technology Award of the U.S.-Electrochemical Society (Vittorio De Nora Gold Medal). In 1990 he received the Austria State Energy Prize and the Ernst Schroedinger Prize. In 1991 he was awarded the Frank M. Booth Prize of the Royal Society of Great Britain. In 1992 he was awarded the Auer V. Welsbach Medal.
In 1986 he was a co-founder of Batteries Technologies Incorporated ( BTI) in Toronto, Canada and became the Senior Vice President of Research & Development. Twenty (20) patents were granted to him and assigned to BTI on Rechargeable Alkaline Manganese Dioxide (RAM) Batteries (small batteries for flashlights and small appliances, not competitive with AES's Lead Cobalt Batteries). BTI has licensees in the U.S.A. (RAYOVAC), in Korea (YOUNG POONG), Malaysia and Austria (GRAND BATTERY INC [GBY] ), and in Germany (BATTERY INNOVATION GROUP [BIG] ).
In 1988, he formed Kordesch & Associates, Inc. and acts as a consulting company in Canada, serving BTI and others.
Between 1988 and 1993, he participated in the European Space Agency (ESA) Program developing an Alkaline Matrix Fuel Cell for the manned Space Vehicles HERMES under contracts between the Technical University of Graz, Dornier and Siemens.
In 1990 he received an Honorary Doctorate of the Technical University of Vienna. He wrote several books on batteries, electric vehicles and fuel cells, the latest being Fuel Cells and their Application published by Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH (VCH) in Germany, Switzerland, UK, USA, Canada and Japan in 1996, and has written over 200 technical publications.
In 1997, in cooperation with Energy Ventures Inc. (EVI) of Canada, he managed a development program for the National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada, covering rechargeable Nickel-Zinc and Zinc-Carbon Batteries with Austria Government participation. He is head of research of EVI.
In 1997 he joined Apollo Energy Systems, Inc. as a Director and Vice President in charge of fuel cell development.
The front cover of Professor Dr. Karl Kordesch's latest book is shown below.
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Published by jointly by
VCH Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Weinheim (Federal
Republic of Germany)
VCH Publishers, Inc., Germany, Switzerland, UK, USA,
Canada and Japan
