Ceramic Fuel Cells Regulatory News (CFU)

17 Apr 2007 09:24

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited17 April 2007 Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited Signs Partnership Agreement with Germany's Forschungszentrum Julich 17 April 2007 - Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited, a leading developer of solid oxidefuel cells for micro-combined heat and power units, has signed an agreement withForschungszentrum Julich to collaborate on researching and developingapplications for solid oxide fuel cell systems. Ceramic Fuel Cells will also award an annual student prize for specialachievements in fuel cell development. Established in 1956, and now with more than 4,000 staff, students andresearchers and an annual budget of more than 360 million Euros,Forschungszentrum Julich is one of the largest research institutions in Europe. Forschungszentrum Julich has been carrying out R&D in solid oxide fuel cellsystems since the mid 1990s, including a strong focus on high-poweredanode-supported cells. The Forschungszentrum Julich has developed several stackdesigns and in 2004 constructed and tested a 10kW stack. ForschungszentrumJulich has also developed significant expertise in complete systems and indeveloping novel materials, for example high-temperature, low cost ferriticsteel used by a number of developers. Under the framework agreement, the partners will conduct agreed researchprojects tailored to match the partners' expertise and market needs. Areas ofresearch are likely to include materials development, and accelerated lifetimetesting and modelling. The annual student prize will acknowledge and reward outstanding student work ina field relating to fuel cell development. The prize will be open to students atall German universities and will include a cash component and a work experienceinternship at Ceramic Fuel Cells in Melbourne, Australia. Commenting on the collaboration, Dr Karl Foger, Chief Technology Officer ofCeramic Fuel Cells said: "We are delighted that Forschungszentrum Julich has chosen to partner withCeramic Fuel Cells. Forschungszentrum Julich is very well regarded as aninternational leader in fuel cell research. Both partners have been developingfuel cells for over 10 years, and we've gained a lot of expertise that we canshare. We believe we can accelerate fuel cell commercialisation by experiencedindustry and academic researchers learning from each other. "We are also happy to be sponsoring the fuel cell studies prize. It's importantto reward excellence and encourage students to get involved in really excitingclean technologies. Our involvement will also build our profile in Europe withleading researchers, of today and tomorrow. This will become more important inthe next few years as we increase our operations at our site at Heinsberg, whichis less than an hour's drive from the Julich research centre." Prof. Dr. Detlev Stover, Research Director Energy at Forschungszentrum Julichadded: "Researchers of Forschungszentrum Julich and Ceramic Fuel Cells have known eachother for many years, and we are looking forward to entering into a closercooperation by establishing this Framework Agreement. Forschungszentrum Julichis pleased that CFCL has chosen to locate the fabrication facility in Heinsbergclose to Julich which will further strengthen the Northrhein Westfalia fuel cellnetwork. We value the work CFCL has carried out in the field and we areconfident that any future collaboration will be beneficial to both Ceramic FuelCells and Forschungszentrum Julich." ENDS For further information please contact: Ceramic Fuel Cells Tel: +61 419 950 771Andrew Neilson Tel: +44 (0) 7798 554 191Brendan Bilton Email: investor@cfcl.com.au Hogarth Partnership, UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7357 9477Nick Denton / Sarah MacLeod Gollin Harris, Germany Tel: +49 (177) 74 86 586Matthias Baumgarten NOTES TO EDITORS About CFCL Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited is a leader in developing solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) technology which can provide reliable, energy efficient, high-quality,and low-emission electricity from widely available natural gas and renewablefuels. CFCL is developing SOFC products for small-scale on-site micro combinedheat and power (m-CHP) and distributed generation units that co-generateelectricity and heat for domestic use. CFCL is listed on the London StockExchange AIM market and the Australian Stock Exchange (code CFU). www.cfcl.com.au About Julich Established in 1956, and now with more than 4,000 staff, students andresearchers and an annual budget of more than 360 million Euros,Forschungszentrum Julich is one of the largest research institutions in Europe.Forschungszentrum Julich is one of the 15 Helmholtz Research Centres in Germany,and is jointly funded by the German Federal government and the NorthRhine-Westphalia regional government. Energy is a focus research area of the Research Centre, and since the mid 1990sFZ Juelich has been working in the field of SOFC. Approximately 100 staff fromthe Institute for Energy Research (IEF) and develop and test new materials,model stacks and systems, fabricate fuel cells, construct and test stacks andfull demonstration systems. http://www.fz-juelich.de This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange