Alkaline Fuel Cell Power and Progressus Clean Technologies to develop hydrogen pilot

Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp. and Progressus Clean Technologies Inc. to complete a joint venture pilot project that aims to provide a solution for natural gas utilities to directly power both residential and commercial businesses.

The JV is intended to provide proof of concept for each company’s technologies and assess the ability to combine various Progressus technologies with AFCP fuel cells to serve residential and small building customers across North America.

AFCP and Progressus will work together to execute a JV pilot project utilizing technologies from each company to provide in-field proof-of-concept, generate operational data that can inform continued development and market opportunities, and establish a platform to support future potential growth and additional partnerships. The exact location of the JV pilot project remains under consideration but initially, North America will be the focus with secondary priority given to potential future pilots in Europe.

Progressus technologies enable the extraction of dilute hydrogen from gas streams, a critical component as utility companies increasingly strive to inject hydrogen into natural gas streams globally. Progressus represents a solution that can extract the hydrogen at high efficiencies, complementing AFCP’s low-cost combined heat and power (“CHP”) alkaline fuel cell and generator development.

The JV pilot project is designed to use the Progressus hydrogen separation technology to efficiently extract hydrogen at high purities from the existing natural gas grid, and then convert the purified hydrogen using either AFCP’s 4 kW Micro-CHP or 4 kW generator to produce electricity and potentially heat. This project could be put to immediate use in a residential home or commercial building, providing truly zero-emission power. AFCP has already identified interest from natural gas, electric utilities, and municipalities to pilot the concept.

By accelerating the distribution of hydrogen through natural gas transportation networks, particularly in North America, sales of AFCP’s alkaline fuel cell CHP units and generator systems could be rapidly scaled. Combining AFCP’s and Progressus’ technologies offers an ideal potential solution to support the generation of low carbon energy that contributes to the world’s clean energy transition.

The proposed pilot project would initially cover one extraction system linked to one 4 kW Micro-CHP or generator system, with expansion to a larger scale in future pilots designed to provide clean hydrogen and power for multiple residential users or commercial applications.

Frank Carnevale, Chief Executive Officer of AFCP said, “This JV pilot project is a key milestone in our goal of making zero emission fuel cells widely available, handing ‘power to the people’ so that individuals can both save on energy costs while positively contributing to global emission reduction targets.”

Channce Fuller, Chief Executive Officer of Progressus, said, “The proposed JV pilot project with AFCP is an active step towards progressing hydrogen innovation and combining the suite of technologies that will ultimately be needed for global hydrogen solutions in the future.”