Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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As stated in the Power Up project detail, published at the end of December 2018, it says the project finished at the end of June 2017, but that:
"The Stade plant is still actively used as a demonstration facility for new alkaline fuel cell stack designs and balance of plant upgrades"
So that is 18 months after the project finished and the fuel cell was still in use. I don't see any reason to suspect that has changed.
On the other comments about putting big systems into the Chlor-alkali industry, I believe from what we've been told, that they need to show 4 year electrode life in order to make the system cheap enough to sell into that market, which is why it's not on the 'do this week' list. However, we have also recently been told about pressure on the Chlor-alkali industry to reduce emissions, so it's possible they might bite the bullet and go for a near term AFC system.
Desert Wolf. Just for you I have just checked my AGM notes. I asked Bond about Coventry then and was told that whilst they were still talking German subsidies were not enough for a commercial venture. He also confirmed that stacks were being tested at Stade, which confirms my view that Bitterfeld is not being used , certainly I have not heard of any work there since 2015.
Yachtmaster,
Had we spent time asking about Covestro on Friday you would have been criticising attendees for not asking about the potential roll-out of small systems in the new year with potential clients (a more pressing set of questions). There are only so many questions that can be asked in a limited amount of time and the presentation was followed by a Board meeting..
That brings me back to the limited list of questions posted on this bulletin board, and sent to the Company by Chippyjo. My impression on the day was that those matters were picked up by Adam (true chippyjo?). At the AGM it would be worthwhile making sure you either attend, or flag up these sort of questions in advance to they stand a chance of being dealt with in a presentation.
ok my apologies Mitch & Bumble, thanks for info
Daz, it was the liquid electrolyte fuel cells for the southern deal.
I have not heard them refer to testing at Bitterfeld since the Stade site was set up. What information do you have on more recent testing at Akzo DW?
Just to clarify what I just said the aerial photo of stade is dated from 2016, so somewhat out of date!
When?
Akzo? Akzo is long gone. It was used to test the early versions of the sub-10 kW stacks and was replaced by Stade. If you check Google Earth it was still there when the last aerial photos were taken. In my opinion there will be a roll for Stade for as long as they require large volumes of hydrogen. They cannot store industrial amounts of this gas at Dunsfold, therefore the larger systems that are being developed at the moment must be being tested there, I surmise. Time to ask questions on Friday was very limited and most questions gravitated towards the ev charger. Prior to that Bond had referred to industrial plants as being lower priority. My personal assumption on those is that we are waiting for De Nora to complete the work they are doing on the scaled up electrodes, testing to confirm the consistency of that product. I think it is more essential for something like a Chlor Alkali system as it will be working in more stressfull conditions, producing higher power. Covestro was asked about at the AGM and I thought we were told it was not progressing. The priority now is making a push on the vehicle chargers for now.
And Daz, have we been told the high power systems will go to Southern? I thought it was the liquid electric versions that were going there.
These are the sorts of questions that could have been asked at the shareholder day last Friday?
Did anyone ask about Stade and Convestro?
Same here DW, we've been told Southern are having to redesign their plant, ok, but on the other hand we've been told that the high power fule cells aren't ready anyway so it seems quite convienent that the reason given only mentions delays on Southerns part.
Daz, I came away with the understanding that the demonstrator unit is going to potential customers in the new year. If there is that level of interest serving it may be more important than a road show looking for interest.
And to correct you on one detail the ev charger has been developed over a period of just over a year. Electric vehicle owners have not been waiting 13 years.
Come on Daz, they my have prospective customers lined up but they only launched last week. They wouldn’t have been sitting at their desks pen and cheque book in hand waiting to pull the trigger.
They’ve seen it, there will be meetings and a decision to be made from that. Some customers won’t be looking to by just one so it’s a big investment.
Haggis, excuse my frustration but when a product has been in development for 13 years and AFC have been inundated with enquiries i would have thought they would have customers lined up waiting to place orders as soon as the product was released thats all.
I'd have thought they would have sent the details to all of the companies that said they needed something like this, the one's that made ROLEC approach AFC in the first place. And that's probably part of the reason there were over 50 companies at AFC HQ for the launch.
Do they need it on their website? Yes. Do they need it there urgently? Probably not, with the amount of sales leads already lined up.
Can’t see the new ev charger being advertised on Rolec’s website, has anyone else found it ? I would have thought they’d have it on their ASAP