Ceres Power Regulatory News (CWR)

19 Jul 2007 07:00

Ceres Power Holdings plc19 July 2007 19 July 2007 Ceres Power Holdings plc ('Ceres', 'Ceres Power' or the 'Company') Wall-mountable Fuel Cell CHP Unit Demonstration Ceres Power, the AIM-quoted fuel cell group, announces that it has designed andbuilt an integrated, wall-mountable combined heat and power unit ('the CHPUnit') which will form part of an up-coming demonstration at the Company's headquarters. This technical achievement demonstrates the commercial potentialof the product and also represents an important milestone in the Company'sresidential CHP programme with British Gas. The compact and wall-mountable design will enable access to residential massmarkets in the UK and overseas. The integrated CHP Unit is capable ofgenerating electricity and all of the central heating and hot water requirementsof a typical home, avoiding the need for a separate boiler, and so can addressnew build and replacement markets. The CHP Unit uses the same natural gas,water and electricity connections as a boiler, and is thus easy to install. Key balance of plant components within the CHP programme have been developed inpartnership with well-established volume manufacturers from industriesincluding automotive and white goods. The operating temperature (500-600degreesC) of the unique Ceres Power fuel cell technology has enabled the useof widely available and cost-effective raw materials, components andmanufacturing equipment. The Company is now focused on value engineering of the CHP Unit and the scale-upof core manufacturing processes to meet expected customer demand. The Company will be inviting analysts to its Crawley headquarters on TuesdaySeptember 11th for a CHP demonstration, management presentation and tour of thefacilities. Following this event, the Company will also showcase the CHP hardware at the London Stock Exchange on Friday September 14th. Peter Bance, Chief Executive of Ceres Power, commented: "Building on our established technology leadership, we have now developed theproduct engineering capabilities and supply chain relationships that haveenabled us to demonstrate an integrated wall-mountable CHP Unit. Achievement ofthis important milestone is a significant step forward in the commercialisationof our unique technology." - ends - For further information contact: Peter Bance, Chief Executive, Ceres Power +44 (0) 1293 400 404Patrick d'Ancona / Charlotte Kirkham +44 (0) 207 153 1531M: Communications About Ceres Power Ceres is a successful AIM-listed fuel cell business developing a range of globalmarket applications including residential combined heat and power, on-site /back-up generators and auxiliary power units for transport. The technology isbased on commercially available materials for low cost manufacture and unlikemany fuel cells, the Ceres cell operates on widely available fuels like naturalgas and LPG, as well as on hydrogen. Ceres has developed a new generation of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) technologywhich operates in the temperature range of 500-600 degrees centigrade enabledby the use of CGO (Cerium Gadolinium Oxide) as the electrolyte material. Thisis substantially lower than the temperatures at which conventional SOFCmaterials operate, typically 800-1000 degrees centigrade for YSZ (YttriaStabilised Zirconia). The inherently lower operating temperature of the Ceres CGO-based SOFCtechnology enables thin ceramic layers to be supported by metal substrates,which, in turn, provides the basis of cell and stack designs manufactured from commercially available grades of stainless steel, providing excellent sealingintegrity, mechanical robustness, and thermal shock resistance. Fuel and air are supplied to a stack of fuel cell layers to produce electricityand heat via a solid state electrochemical process, similar to a battery. Unlike combustion in an engine or with a burner, this solid state process ishighly efficient, environmentally friendly, and quiet. The uniqueness of the Ceres metal supported SOFC technology and its operatingtemperature range provide the basis for a range of attractive commercialapplications in terms of: fuel efficiency, with associated economic savings and reduction in carbon emissions; heat-to-power ratio ideally suited for domesticCHP applications and well matched to seasonal variations in electrical and heatdemand; the ability to operate on a range of commercially available fuels including natural gas and LPG; low temperature of operation enabling use ofcommercially available materials resulting in reduced product costs. In conjunction with the Ceres stack programme, the Company has been developingthe non-fuel cell elements within the complete product, known as the balance ofplant ("BOP"), as part of its systems integration activities aimed at delivering products for specific customers. Because of the unique attributes ofthe technology, Ceres has been able to dramatically reduce the time and cost ofBOP development and systems integration by utilising mature component supply chains and ordinary, low cost materials. Unlike other fuel cell designs whichoperate at more extreme temperatures, time-consuming and expensive bespokesolutions for BOP components are not required. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange