Franklin Fuel Cells Receives PEDA Grant
Fuel Cells Today, EIN Publishing, February 16, 2006 - EIN STAFF: 2/13 - Franklin Fuel Cells, Inc. recently announced it has received a $408,737 grant from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority (PEDA) for an applied research project for ongoing development of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology for incorporation into pre-commercial products within 12 months.
According to Franklin president and CEO John Law, the grant will allow the company to "greatly" increase in-house capabilities by expanding its current facility to reduce its design/build/test cycles, thereby permitting more rapid analysis and implementation of results "to further speed technology development and product enhancement."
Franklin noted that its proprietary direct oxidation SOFC technology is capable of running on "virtually every commercially available liquid and gaseous fuel," and has already been demonstrated on retail pump gasoline, diesel, kerosene, ethanol, naphtha, natural gas, propane, butane and hydrogen.
Contact: John Law, Franklin Fuel Cells, phone 610-640-7545.
Franklin Fuel Cells Lands Grant from SECA
Fuel Cells Today, EIN Publishing, October 26, 2005 - EIN STAFF: 10/17 - Franklin Fuel Cells, Inc. recently announced it has been awarded a $100,000 Phase One development grant from the Department of Energy's Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA).
According to Franklin Fuel Cells, the grant acknowledges the potential for the company's patented impregnated cathode technology to help spur the development and commercialization of solid oxide fuel cells.
"We are delighted and honored that the Department of Energy recognizes the uniqueness and competitive advantages of our technology, and has selected Franklin Fuel Cells to help advanced the fuel cell industry," said Franklin president and CEO John Law. "Becoming a SECA member carries a lot of weight, and is a recognition of our technology's unique potential."
Franklin Fuel Cells noted that its cathode technology could help address issues associated with high operating temperatures required of existing cathodes.
Contact: Wayne Gardner, Franklin Fuel Cells, phone 610-640-7545.
Social Responsibility: Hard Choices on Soft Issues - Fuel-Cell Company Looks to Future
Financial Executive Magazine - July/August 2005: By Jeffrey Marshall - It's one thing to talk about reducing hydrocarbon emissions. It's quite another to be developing new technologies that avoid the emissions issue altogether.
That's what tiny Franklin Fuel Cells (FFC) Inc. of Malvern, Pa., is doing, having acquired solid oxide fuel cell technology from the University of Pennsylvania and striving to develop commercially applicable technology. The company hopes to have operating prototypes available by the end of next year and to start offering them to power companies by the start of 2007.Franklin, formed in 2002, has just signed a three-year contract with the Office of Naval Research to develop its fuel cell technology for operation on currently available military logistic fuels like diesel oil. "They've communicated that they believe the fuel cell will be prominent in their deployment for the next century," says Wayne Gardner, vice president, finance and administration, for FFC. "We see them as a potential early customer."
It's not that Franklin has the field to itself. Gardner says that globally, fuel cell investments are "probably in the high hundreds of millions of dollars," mentioning companies like General Electric, Siemens-Westinghouse, Cummins Inc. and Japan's Kyocera Group.
Gardner says FFC hopes to develop and eventually produce fuel cells that could supplant small internal combustion engines, and could run on a variety of currently available fuels, including gasoline, diesel and biodiesel, ethanol, propane and butane. The beauty of the fuel cell, he says, is that it is far more efficient, creating considerably more output from the same amount of fuel.
One current problem around fuel cells is that there is no "hydrogen economy" to support a hydrogen-based technology that would be essentially non-polluting. "We've run into some resistance from green purists, who say that unless you're operating in a totally hydrogen-based economy, all you're producing is dirty and not useful," Gardner says.
But he thinks that "the public markets are anxiously awaiting a very real fuel cell company. We're being extremely transparent, and bringing in third parties to verify what we're doing," with an eye towards possibly going public at some point. "It definitely is an underserved market." (www.fei.org)
Navy gives Franklin Fuel Cells $1 million for research
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 2005 - Porus P. Cooper - Franklin Fuel Cells Inc., a Malvern company that is developing a fuel cell that would be unusual in its ability to run on multiple fuels, got a $1 million boost from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the largest contract by far that the company has landed in its nearly four years of existence. Fuel cells, which create electrical energy, typically operate on hydrogen. Franklin's cells also would operate on conventional fuels, such as gasoline. The contract will help pay for research on fuel cells that can run on a heavy diesel called F76, used by the Navy, said John Law, president and chief executive officer of Franklin. The Navy is planning a fleet of electric-powered ships, and fuel cells would enable them to be constructed without a central power plant and cables running all over, Law said, helping them withstand combat damage better. (www.philly.com)
Franklin Fuel brings in more money
Philadelphia Business Journal – Feb. 14, 2005 - Franklin Fuel Cells Inc. said Monday it has raised an additional $3 million, bringing the total amount it has raised to $7.4 million. The Malvern, Pa., company said the additional money came from its previous investors. They include EnerTech Capital Partners of Wayne, the Reinvestment Fund's Sustainable Development Fund, which is based in Philadelphia, and individuals. The company is further developing a copper-based solid oxide fuel technology originally developed at the University of Pennsylvania. The technology allows readily available fuels, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, and natural gas, to be used to generate power in fuel-cell systems with higher efficiency and significantly lower cost. The company moved into a new development and test facility in the Great Valley Corporate Center in October and expanded the number of test stations in the facility to 20 this month. (www.philadelphia.bizjournals.com)
Franklin Fuel Cells: Looking to change the way energy is produced
Daily Local News - Wednesday, January 25, 2005: By Danna Cornick- Tucked away in a far corner of the Great Valley Corporate Center, a handful of engineers at Franklin Fuel Cells are quietly perfecting a revolutionary new way to produce energy, a fuel cell that can operate directly on dry hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline, diesel, propane and butane.
Fuel cells have been around for more than a century. All fuel cells contain two elctrodes - one positively charged anode, and one negatively charged cathode - with a substance that conducts electricity, an electrolyte, and a catalyst sandwiched between them.
Penn has already treaded path as Science Center embarks
Philadelphia Business Journal - Jan. 21-27 2005 - Peter Key - The Science Center's goal of creating 40 Philadelphia-based life sciences and high-technology companies with a market value of $1 billion by 2010 sounds ambitious.
But while getting the companies to an average worth of $25 million apiece may be difficult, creating that many companies may not be.
The University of Pennsylvania alone started 47 companies in iits 2000 through 2005 fiscal years and is on track to create another 16 this year.
