ACAL Energy Ltd. has today announced an investment from Sumitomo Corporation, a leading Japanese trading company with substantial business activities in energy, mineral and merchandise trading, through its investment arm SC Green Tech Ventures LLC. The investment is in addition to the previously announced £3.3M fundraising round completed at the beginning of December, led by Carbon Trust Investments and Solvay SA. All funds raised will be used to take the company to the next stage of development of their ground breaking low cost fuel cell systems, based on novel platinum-free cathode technology (FlowCath®).
Fuel cells are a highly efficient and clean energy production technology capable of replacing combustion engines in a wide variety of applications including remote and distributed power, residential cogeneration, as well as automotive and mobile power applications. FlowCath® replaces the expensive precious metal catalyst found in conventional fuel cells with a proprietary low cost liquid catalyst. This not only reduces the cost of the fuel cell, but also provides significant durability and reliability benefits through system simplification, and the elimination of the most common failure mechanisms found in standard fuel cells. The company plans to introduce a 1kW demonstration system in 2009.
Chief Executive Officer, Dr SB Cha said: “We are very fortunate to have an investment from Sumitomo Corporation in this very difficult business environment. We look forward to working with Sumitomo Corporation to deliver ACAL products to the Japanese and other Asian markets in the near future. Sumitomo Corporation is the second blue-chip Japanese company to invest in ACAL and since the Japanese Cleantech market is arguably the most advanced in the world, we view the investment as a very strong endorsement of our technology and market potential.”
ACAL Energy Limited
ACAL Energy is a developer of a new fuel cell technology that will enable low cost and highly reliable fuel cell systems for stationary and remote power, home cogeneration, and automotive and mobile applications. Fuel cells are a highly efficient and clean energy production technology capable of replacing combustion engines in a wide variety of applications including remote and distributed power, residential cogeneration as well as automotive and mobile power applications. FlowCath® replaces expensive precious metal catalyst found in conventional fuel cells with a proprietary low cost liquid catalyst. This not only reduces the cost of the fuel cell but also provides significant durability and reliability benefits through system simplification and the elimination of the most common failure mechanisms found in standard fuel cells. The company was founded in August 2004 by FlowCath® inventor Dr Andrew Creeth and is headquartered in Runcorn, UK.
ACAL Energy is currently funded by CT Investment Partners LLP, Rising Stars Growth Fund (RSGF), NorthStar Equity Investors Ltd., Porton Capital Ltd., Synergis Technologies Ltd., Solvay SA and a major Japanese corporate investor.
For further information, please contact Amanda Lyne at ACAL Energy:
Tel: +44 (0)1928 51581
E-mail: alyne@acalenergy.co.uk
URL: www.acalenergy.co.uk
