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Vice President, Philip Furber, Elected to the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition Board of Directors
"University of Toledo and Catacel collaboration a success for fuel reforming technologies"
"Catacel Corp. gets Third Frontier money from Ohio Controlling Board"
"Local inventor hopes hydrogen process brings success"
Catacel Corp. - PRESS RELEASE - April 5, 2006:
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Catacel Corp., a Garrettsville, Ohio company, is designing and developing component products for the fuel cell industry, as well as reactors for commercial production of hydrogen. Catacel has joint development agreements with a number of national and international companies and universities to commercialize these products. Catacel's principals and a number of its employees have developed and commercialized catalyzed metal foil products for a variety of applications since the mid-1980s.
Catacel has announced that in the first quarter of 2006 it has received in excess of $1,500,000 of grant funding for work on projects that have a total combined budget in excess of $2,300,000. Two grants have been awarded by the Edison Materials Technology Center (EMTEC) from funds provided by the Department of Energy for development of the hydrogen infrastructure. A third grant was awarded by the National Science Foundation, and a fourth one comes from the Ohio Department of Development (as part of the Ohio Third Frontier Fuel Cell Program funding). Each of the projects is being undertaken with the assistance of collaborative partners including the University of Toledo, Patriot Engineering Co., Inc., Creative Processing Inc., NexTech Materials, Ltd. and EMTEC.
The first of these projects will complete development of a platform heat exchanger useful for fuel cell balance of plant, which is being partially funded by the Ohio Department of Development Third Frontier Grant. A component of the project includes development of a fuel reformer capable of producing hydrogen from diesel fuel. This fuel reformer utilizes the heat exchanger platform structure as a reactor. This part of the project is being partially funded by the National Science Foundation Grant. Catalyst innovations at the University of Toledo, in conjunction with the work being done by Catacel are creating the ability to economically produce hydrogen from liquid fuels such as diesel and jet fuel, thus providing a reforming system that will far exceed current capabilities.
This project has the potential to reduce the cost of fuel cell component parts by up to 50% or more. In addition, target goals for useful life, weight, size and maintenance are being achieved, providing a reforming system that will far exceed current capabilities, while providing component parts to fuel cell manufacturers and integrators which address other competitive target goals for the fuel cell industry. All of this is focused on meeting key commercialization targets that will help bring fuel cell systems into cost and operational competitiveness with current methods of electrical generation.
A stand alone fuel processing system which utilizes the platform heat exchanger for a variety of its components is the subject of a second project. This system will be used for on-site production of hydrogen for refueling cars and trucks at local service stations. This project will be partially funded by one of the EMTEC Grants. In addition to other peripherals, the fuel processor will contain a reformer, high temperature shift reactor, low temperature shift reactor, vaporizer, and, possibly a CO reactor, all of which use the heat exchanger platform structure as the basic reactor device. This fuel processing system is expected to be more efficient and less costly than other reformers currently being developed for the hydrogen highway.
A third project being funded by the other EMTEC grant will help finalize development of the Catacel Stackable Structural Reactor (SSRTM), planned for commercial introduction in early 2007. A reactor tube using SSR is expected to produce approximately 50% more product than the same tube containing a ceramic packed bed, which is the technology currently in use for commercial hydrogen production. In addition to gains realized by producers in retrofit applications, the SSR is expected to significantly reduce new hydrogen plant costs by reducing the size of these plants. By changing the catalyst applied to the metal structure, SSR systems may also be applied for commercial ammonia and methanol processes.
For further information contact:
William Whittenberger, President, Catacel Corp., (330) 527-0731
Philip Furber, Vice President, Catacel Corp., (330) 468-4984
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