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UltraCell Develops Reformed Methanol Fuel Cell

August 23, 2005 by Jeff Shepard

UltraCell Corp. (Livermore, CA), a fuel cell developer, introduced a new reformed methanol fuel cell for mobile gear, which it claims produces twice the power density of lithium batteries. The new fuel cell uses "micro-reformer" technology developed under a military contract to generate hydrogen from a highly concentrated methanol solution used in fuel cells. UltraCell claims that the portable power system achieves the power density of a hydrogen fuel cell while using cheap methanol fuel. An early system provided 45 W of continuous power. The unit weighs 40 oz.

The micro-reformer technology was developed under a US Army contract. The Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center awarded UltraCell a contract to accelerate development of a more compact portable system running at 25 W. The new power source is being developed for commercial use as the UltraCell25. It will be available in 2006 for commercial mobile computing applications.

The company has an exclusive license with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories for micro fuel cell technology based on reforming methanol into hydrogen "reformate" using proprietary technology in the fuel reformer and hydrogen fuel cell stack. The system uses a high-temperature membrane assembly developed by fuel cell maker Pemeas GmbH (Germany) in its fuel cell stack, resulting in high tolerance to impurities.