Bac2 heads for US market at Texas Fuel Cell Trade Show

Bac2, a fuel-cell materials company based in Southampton UK is heading for the US market and taking its patented ElectroPhen material for fuel cell bipolar plates to the Fuel Cell Seminar in San Antonio, Texas, USA. The event runs from 15-19 October 2007.

The company claims its conductive plastic already exceeds US Department of Energy specifications for automobiles with respect to the conductivity of its plates. Bipolar plates are used to join individual cells together within a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack.

Bipolar plates make up to 30% of the cost of a PEM fuel cell stack. Making them from ElectroPhen delivers substantial cost savings without compromising performance. ElecroPhen’s raw state conductivity is in one billion times higher than commonly used resin binders, which means that no post-processing, such as extreme temperature or surface machining, are required to meet the final conductivity requirements of the material.. This makes ElectroPhen plates easy and economical to produce in the high volumes needed for full-scale deployment of fuel cells.

ElecroPhen can be further modified with plasticisers, reinforcers, and conductive fillers to enable the composition to be fine-tuned for individual applications. ElecroPhen is thermally stable, resilient to temperature and inert towards fuel cell catalysts and membranes. This means that fuel cell stack manufacturers can safely explore the use of more economical membrane-electrode assembly materials that may yield greater efficiency with higher temperatures at the reaction surface. The basic raw materials for ElectroPhen are widely available from major chemical suppliers and curing is achieved at room temperature.

Bac2 is attending the Fuel Cell Seminar and Exposition on the UK stand, which is funded by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) – and Scottish Development International (SDI). The theme of this year’s show is: 'Fuel Cells: On the Path to Energy Independence'. Bac2’s technology has the potential to accelerate significantly the adoption of fuel cells by making them both more economical and easier to produce.

Source: Fuel Cell Today