Neah Power Systems, Inc. announced that it has successfully tested a 16-cell version of its silicon-based fuel cell stack. Using Neah Power’s patented silicon technology, the company claims that the stack produced greater power density than any known competitive technology under similar conditions. The successful test is said to be a major milestone toward completion of a commercial fuel cell prototype.
The 16-cell stack produced over 7W of power at room temperature, which can be expected to increase significantly at typical fuel cell operating temperatures. "Successful operation of the stack – which is the fundamental component of power generation – is generally considered to be the main engineering hurdle to completion of a fuel cell," said John Drewery, Executive Vice President of Engineering.
The success of the 16-cell stack test is said to show that Neah Power’s porous silicon electrode architecture will produce power at the level needed for commercialization. "This is an essential step that we have been building toward for many months," said Paul Abramowitz, President and CEO. "Our team’s achievement keeps us on track to deliver our fuel cell prototype in the 3rd quarter of this year."
Neah Power claims that its patented silicon technology will more than double the known power densities of any competing direct methanol fuel cell. With this and its other patented technologies, Neah Power believes that it will be uniquely positioned to compete with both alternative fuel cells and lithium ion batteries.
