Cosmo Oil Co. (Tokyo, Japan) announced that it will enter the market for home-use fuel cells. By the end of the year, the company will introduce a fuel cell that obtains hydrogen from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). With the market for gasoline and other petroleum products having reached a ceiling, the company aims to develop operations in fuel cells as a new source of profit.
Cosmo Oil will offer a fuel cell jointly created with Toshiba Fuel Cell Power Systems Corp. that will have an output of about 700 W, which is enough to cover roughly 60% of the electricity used in an average household with a family of four. The company will likely rent out the fuel cells for a period of three to five years for a fee of about �60,000 per year. The cost, including fuel bills to a user household, will likely be about the same as current energy expenses.
In 2007, Cosmo Oil plans to introduce a cell that extracts hydrogen from kerosene. In developing the product, Cosmo Oil will likely collaborate with the Toshiba Corp. group.
