Many fuel cell providers have been getting closer to commercialisation of their products and the recent hype over Silicon Valley’s Bloom Energy is a case in point. With Google, Fedex and Ebay amongst their trial customers, General Colin Powell sitting on the board and Arnold Schwarzenneger publicly praising the founder, it’s little wonder that CBS covered the Silicon Valley fuel cell maker in a 60 minutes special [1] . But for all the press attention, the billions invested in fuel cell companies, and billions more that have disappeared from sector capitalisations through twin bear markets, there has been little return in the way of real world revenues.

Most fuel cell companies are targeting mass adoption in consumer markets - whether aiming to replace the internal combustion engine in vehicles or providing combined heat and power production in homes and offices - but there’s a UK listed company in Surrey that’s focused on reinventing the most neglected form of the technology as a low cost industrial option and in the process potentially carving out a niche in an area which seems to have little current competition. [2]

Dunsfold Park, Surrey
AFC Energy Plc Company LogoAFC Energy Plc (LON:AFC) is developing a modular alkaline fuel cell system for the industrial market. Originally formed when the founders bought the fuel cell assets from Eneco in January 2006, the company has put together a strong management team including Tim Yeo MP as chairman, Ian Balchin ex Stanelco as CEO, and Dr. Gene Lewis ex Ceres Power as Technical Director. The company was floated on the AIM Market (LON:AFC) in April 2007 with the goal of commercialising its fuel cell technologies for application primarily in the chlor-alkali industry.

Recently, the prospect of applying its fuel cells to the Underground Coal Gasification process is bringing the potential for a much larger market for their product. [3] We recently visited with AFC Energy at their labs and offices in the industrial units surrounding the Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey, home of many a ‘Top Gear’ road test, after their recent investor and shareholder open day. We met with Howard White, one of the original founders and now consultant to the company and Dr. Gene Lewis the Technical Director who gave us a tour of…

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