12th Oct 2015 11:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - AFC Energy PLC Monday said it has reached its tenth and penultimate milestone in its 2015 Power-Up programme which is focused on commercialising its proven low-cost alkaline fuel cell system, or KORE, which converts hydrogen into clean electricity.
AFC said it achieved its tenth milestone after commencing a temporary operation of an entire tier of eight fuel cell cartridges on the KORE system, from which it achieved a maximum output of just over 40.0 kilowatts equivalent.
The eight fuel cell cartridges used in the trial also will be used to test the second and third tiers of the system "in the coming weeks", it said. That will require the tiers to be cycled, or switched on and off, many times. In order to preserve their effective operational longevity for the further testing, they were therefore not run to full capacity in this latest test, nor for an extended time period.
Each tier, of which there are three in total, within the KORE fuel cell system is capable of operating independently of the other so the successful operation of a single tier of eight cartridges is a significant further de-risking of the system, according to the company.
The eight cartridges will be installed into each of the remaining two tiers to test the operational capability of the rest of the system before it reaches its eleventh and last milestone, which aims to get the system operating at a commercial level for the first time in December 2015.
"At this stage, AFC is confident that the learnings gained from this trial, both in terms of the fuel cell cartridges and the balance of plant, together with the infrastructure to connect the system to the grid, will greatly support the delivery of milestone 11 in December 2015," said AFC.
"We are edging increasingly closer to delivery of a commercial scale fuel cell system capable of deployment across a range of markets we are focussing on. We will continue to push hard to achieve these ambitious goals and ensure the system we take to market achieves not only short term operational success, but also longevity, safety and stability of power supply across the life of project," said Chief Executive Adam Bond.
Still, AFC shares were down 7.0% to 38.00 pence per share on Monday afternoon.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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