AFC Energy Plc AFC Energy Achieves Milestone Power Output (5761N)
February 01 2016 - 02:07AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMAFC
RNS Number : 5761N
AFC Energy Plc
01 February 2016
AFC Energy PLC
("AFC Energy" or the "Company")
AFC Energy Achieves Milestone Power Output from KORE Fuel Cell
System in Germany
AFC Energy (AIM: AFC), the industrial fuel cell power company,
is pleased to announce that following an intense and accelerated
twelve month fuel cell development programme, it has successfully
delivered gross electrical output in excess of 200kW at its KORE
fuel cell power plant in Stade, Germany.
Highlights
The commissioning activities of the KORE system over the past
five days concluding on 31 January, delivered a series of firsts
for the technology with a summary of the key achievements for the
AFC proprietary fuel cell cartridge and balance of plant
including:
-- In excess of 200kW of power produced from the fuel cell system
-- The first time all three tiers of the KORE fuel cell system
operated in parallel with each other to successfully dispatch power
into the German power grid
-- In excess of 1.3MW of power generated and sold into the grid
under the Power Purchase Agreement agreed with Statdewerke
Stade
-- In excess of 10kW of power generated from multiple fuel cell
stacks operating within the KORE against a design rating of 10kW
per stack
-- From a single tier of the KORE system (8 x fuel cell stacks),
83.3kW of power was generated (against a nameplate of 80kW for a
single tier)
-- From two tiers of the KORE system operating in parallel (16 x
fuel cell stacks), a cumulative 158.4kW of power generated (against
a nameplate of 160kW for two tiers)
-- KORE system automation was fully demonstrated for the first
time through the application of AFC proprietary software against
previous manual trials
Importantly, the trial of the KORE fuel cell system in Germany
last week follows an extensive work programme on the individual 101
fuel cell stack in December and January during which time
significant design parameters were adjusted. These improvements
resulted at one point in the 101 fuel cell stack achieving a gross
power generation output of 11.7kW (against a 10kW design capacity)
and a 9 fuel cell stack achieving an equivalent 14kW output
(grossed up to 101 cell equivalent). The decision to delay
commissioning activities in December was designed to provide
sufficient time to implement a number of these changes to design
parameters into the KORE module in Stade.
One of the key successes from trialling AFC's proprietary KORE
fuel cell system this week is the vast quantity of operational data
that has been acquired. This enables the team to fully assess and
identify learnings to further enhance the fuel cell stack and fuel
cell system, which at present is the largest alkaline fuel cell
system operating in the world today.
Importantly, the trials demonstrate the AFC fuel cells can, and
indeed have, exceeded the name plate capacity of the individual
10kW cartridges which is an outstanding achievement for the
technology which twelve months ago had only operated at most in 25
fuel cell stacks.
We now know that AFC's fuel cell stack is capable of operating
at or above nameplate capacity and with a few adjustments to the
balance of plant structure, 240kW of power generation, or above,
can be achieved in the near term. The technical team at Stade felt
at this stage, with the successes and learnings achieved during
commissioning, that it was not prudent to push the system to 240kW
given the adjustments needed to further optimise design parameters
of the fuel cell stack and balance of plant. However, knowledge
that the electro-chemistry within the cartridge is capable of
delivering at least 10kW of power was sufficient evidence of a
further significant de-risking of the technology at this time.
AFC will now embark on a programme of design optimisation for
the balance of plant and fuel cell stack to capture the learnings
obtained over the past week on the KORE. The second generation of
AFC fuel cell system will be developed with an expectation of being
released later this year. The second generation will focus on
maintaining power output as seen today, whilst also further
enhancing the system's efficiency, longevity and availability as a
whole, and incorporating an engineering cost reduction programme to
ensure the system remains cost competitive.
In addition to the operability of the fuel cells in Stade, the
Company's manufacturing capability necessary to deliver these
trials and the vast number of fuel cell cartridges has seen several
key successes over the past twelve months:
-- Fuel cell production at AFC's facilities increased 1,112% from 2014 to 2015; and
-- Fuel cell electrode yield has improved to 91% (up from 85% in 2014).
Adam Bond, AFC's Chief Executive Officer, said "As a company,
we've come an extraordinary distance over the past twelve months
and today marks a significant milestone achievement, most
importantly being the delivery of a fuel cell stack which has
generated in excess of its nameplate capacity of 10kW. Today marks
a significant step forward, demonstrating further de-risking of our
technology and validates the decision in December 2014 to
accelerate the deployment of AFC's KORE fuel cell system."
Bond further commented, "I would like to again thank all the
staff and contractors working with AFC together with the FCH JU for
their continued support in delivering this project. I also wish to
recognise the massive contribution and sacrifices made by many to
achieve this world class outcome. 2016 is going to be another
exciting year for AFC and I look forward to further updating
shareholders on future milestones and achievements in the coming
weeks."
For further information, please contact:
AFC Energy plc
Adam Bond (Chief Executive Officer) +44 (0) 20 3697 1209
Cantor Fitzgerald Europe - Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker
Andrew Craig
Richard Salmond +44 (0) 20 7894 7000
M C Peat & Co LLP - Joint Broker
Charlie Peat +44 (0) 20 7104 2334
Lionsgate Communications - Public Relations
Jonathan Charles
Rachel Rigby +44 (0) 20 3697 1209
About AFC Energy
AFC Energy plc is developing an alkaline fuel cell system
("KORE"), which converts hydrogen into 'clean' electricity. AFC's
key project POWER-UP demonstrated the world's largest operational
alkaline fuel cell system at Air Products' industrial gas plant in
Stade, Germany in January 2016. The Company is now looking to build
upon an already established pipeline of commercial opportunities
and drive the learnings from the development phase of the
technology into a technically optimised and commercially relevant
fuel cell system. For further information, please visit our
website: www.afcenergy.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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