May 10 2006
Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (Australia) has announced that it has been granted two new Australian patents relating to its fuel cell technology and has applications in respect of the technologies pending in Europe, USA, Japan, China, Canada, India, and Norway.
The first new patent relates to ceramic powders, which are a key material used in the production of solid oxide fuel cells. The patent protects a continuous reactor process which produces chemical products of exceptionally uniform quality at high production rates. CFCL developed the process to produce consistently high quality powders for its fuel cells, and the Company believes there is significant potential for the technology to be applied outside the fuel cell industry.
The second new patent is for a process of producing electricity using fuel cells operating with a fuel supply that includes hydrocarbons higher than methane, for instance LPG and ethanol. CFCL’s fuel cells can already use natural gas, syngas and hydrogen to generate electricity. CFCL believes this innovation can create additional product and market opportunities by cost effectively expanding the range of fuels suitable for CFCL’s fuel cell based power generators.
CFCL has a portfolio of granted and pending patents around fuel cell technology and associated balance of plant systems. CFCL now has a total of 48 patents in 28 patent families, each family representing a single invention covered in multiple jurisdictions.
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