Ceres Power Regulatory News (CWR)

14 Jul 2006 07:00

Ceres Power Holdings plc14 July 2006 Ceres Power Holdings plc ('Ceres', 'Ceres Power' or the 'Company') New Ceres partnership with Rolls Royce and Johnson Matthey to address UK's long-term sustainable power needs Ceres Power, the AIM-quoted fuel cell group, today announces that it ispartnering with leading engineering groups Rolls Royce and Johnson Matthey, aspart of a government-backed programme to deliver innovations in sustainablepower generation and supply. The programme stems from the current Energy Reviewand will help identify long-term solutions to meet the needs of UK industrialand domestic consumers. The DTI-sponsored "SuperGen" programme comprises four consortia of researchinstitutions working in tandem with industry to examine wave and tidal power,future network technologies, hydrogen energy and bioenergy. A particular focusis microgeneration, and Ceres and its partners will help stimulate and managefuel cell research from top UK public laboratories. Ceres Power is the only SME invited to participate and will be positioned in theproject alongside the top fuel cell companies, not only in the UK, but on theinternational stage. By participating in the programme, the industry consortium partners will havethe right to guide over 50 man-years of world-class fuel cell research. TheCompany will continue to focus its own resources on short- to medium-termproduct engineering, manufacturing excellence and strategic partnerships to helpdrive revenue growth. Peter Bance, Chief Executive of Ceres Power, commented: "In this week's Energy Review, the UK government firmly committed to advancingdevelopment of clean-energy technology, such as fuel cells. We are delighted tobe among the participants in the SuperGen consortium, working so closely withmajor industry players such as Rolls Royce and Johnson Matthey as well asseveral leading UK research institutions." - ends -For further information contact: Peter Bance, Chief Executive, Ceres Power +44 (0) 1293 400 404 Patrick 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 global market applications including residential combined heat and power, on-site / back-up generators and auxiliary power units for transport. Critically, the technology uses low cost materials and existing mass-production techniques. And unlike many fuel cells, the Ceres cell can run on widely available fuels like natural gas, LPG and biofuels as well as on hydrogen. Since its formation in 2001, the Company has received major recognition for its technology and business credentials. Ceres won the prestigious 2003 Carbon Trust Innovation Award for the UK's green technology with the best commercial potential. More recently, Ceres secured a top industrial accolade by winning the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining's Gold Medal for 2005. In January 2006, Ceres Power was selected as the only fuel cell company in the government's new Energy Research Partnership, contributing directly to national energy policy. Ceres Power has raised over £25 million of funding through two rounds of private equity and its AIM IPO in November 2004. The company enjoys the support of many blue chip City institutions as financial backers including Fidelity,Morley and JP Morgan. About Ceres Power's Technology Ceres fuel cell stacks are comprised of multiple fuel cells layered on top of one another, each made from stainless steel with tiny amounts of ceramic coating. The cells combine fuel and air to create electricity and heat via a quiet, solid state electrochemical process similar to a battery. As this process does not involve combustion, unlike an engine or burner, it is highly efficient and environmentally friendly. Ceres has developed a unique adaptation of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) technology, able to operate at temperatures substantially lower than conventional designs which run at 800 - 1000 degrees C. By using a new generation of ceramic materials known as CGO (cerium gadolinium oxide) instead of the industry standard YSZ (yttria stabilised zirconia), operation at 500 - 600 degrees becomes possible. This in turn allows use of conventional stainless steel as the cell substrate, separating the functions of mechanical support from electrochemistry. The electrochemical layers can then be made extremely thin and optimised for maximum performance, resulting in world-beating power density levels, whilst the stack material costs are radically reduced. The efficiency of converting fuel into electricity and heat is therefore very high and this efficiency is maintained across a wide part-load range. In addition, the heat-to-power ratio is approximately one-to-one making the technology ideal for applications such as CHP, where levels of electrical output need to be maintained even where heat demand is modest. In contrast to totally ceramic cells, these metal-supported cells are mechanically highly robust and can be easily sealed (e.g. through welding) and have thermal expansion coefficients well matched to their ceramic coatings. This allows great resistance to thermal shock, permitting rapid start-up times and the potential for thousands of ON / OFF cycles for everyday usability. In addition, the technology retains the fuel flexibility of SOFC, and has proven ability to run highly efficiently on commercially available fuels such as natural gas, LPG and biofuels. In conjunction with the Ceres Stack programme, the Company has been developing the non fuel cell elements within the complete product, known as the balance of plant ("BOP"), as part of its systems integration activities aimed at delivering products for specific customers. Because of the unique attributes of the technology, Ceres Power has been able to dramatically reduce the time and cost of BOP development and systems integration by utilising mature component supply chains and ordinary, low cost materials. Unlike other fuel cell designs which operate at more extreme temperatures, time-consuming and expensive bespoke solutions for BOP components are not required. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange