Giner Electrochemical Systems LLC (GES, Newton, MA), a strategic alliance partner of General Motors Corp., announced that it is accepting orders for pre-production units of its 150W Portable Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) power supply. The portable unit has dimensions of 35cm x 15cm x 19cm (14in x 6in x 7.5in), resulting in a volume of 10l (0.35ft³), and it weighs 6.8kg (15lbs). With further development of the stack and system, GES projects a 50% reduction in weight, to 3.4kg (7.5lbs). The system is entirely self-contained, with on-board methanol storage for 280W/h of operation. The unit starts with the flip of a switch and begins power production in less than 1min.
The portable unit provides more than twice the power, in a package of equivalent weight, as a 50W portable DMFC delivered to the Army Research Laboratory 10 months ago. The heart of the system, a DMFC stack, is based on membrane electrode assemblies and stack hardware specifically developed by GES to operate at higher current densities than traditionally used in DMFC stacks.
Pre-production prototype units are available for field trials to strategic customers on a confidential basis at prices beginning at $12,000. GES projects the selling price of the unit in commercial quantities to be less than $500.
