News

TechSys Announces Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell Patent

April 15, 2002 by Jeff Shepard

TechSys Inc. (Florham Park, NJ) announced that strategic partner Adelan Ltd. (Birmingham, England) was awarded patent GB2366070A entitled "Fuel Cell Operation," which it anticipates will have a significant impact on numerous fuel cell systems in general, and on the Adelan solid-oxide fuel cell technology in particular. TechSys has licensed from Adelan the exclusive right for the commercialization of its proprietary solid-oxide fuel processing technology for fuel cell systems, which includes the intellectual property contained in the recent patent.

President and COO Keith Blakely stated, "Receiving the fuel cell operation patent and understanding the performance and economic advantages it will create for our solid-oxide fuel cell technology is a significant step forward in our growth strategy, and secures important protection for fuel cell systems currently in development. The new technology, when commercialized, will offer opportunities to enhance the utilization of nearly all hydrocarbon fuels in a wide range of existing fuel cell technologies and systems."

Dr. Kevin Kendall, the inventor of the technology and spokesperson for Adelan, stated, "This invention relates to the key issues of operating solid-oxide fuel cells to give benefits of fuel flexibility and rapid startup. Ordinarily, fuel processing for these devices is complex and expensive. This patent shows how the fuel system can be simplified to give operation on a range of fuels, including renewables. Also, the micro-tubular design shortens the warm-up time to about one minute, thus opening up the usefulness of solid-oxide fuel cells to a wider range of applications."