Feb 5 2009
Exergy Fuel Cells S.r.I, a subsidiary of Morphic Technology AB (STO:MORPB), in partnership with ICI Caldaie and several other Companies and Research Institutes has won the Italian "selection Industria 2015" with the project MICROGEN 30. The value of the grant for Exergy is 1,960,000 EUR. The project MICROGEN30 met was ranked number 1 in the List drawn up by the Ministry of Economic Development.
INDUSTRIA 2015 is the plan for New Industrial Politics in Italy enacting the EU Directive 2006/32/EC of April 5th, 2006. Quoting the Directive: "European Community has the urge to improve energy efficiency. State Members will have to hit the target of energy saving of 9% within the 9th year from the application of the Directive, by applying any measure of energy management improvement and energy efficiency". In this frame, The Ministry of Economic Development by Industria 2015 will sustain economically the projects that aim to improve energy management, industrialization process of sustainable energy technologies and related R & D in a small – medium time range ( 2015 ).
The MICROGEN30 is a medium size CHP (Combined Heat and Power) energy system based on a PEM fuel cell for stationary application, in this case for residential units. The goal for the system is to generate 30 kW electricity and 50kW heat.
PROJECT PARTNERS:
The project team leader is ICI Caldaie S.p.A., the leading Italian company in the Heating and Boiler industry. In the team Exergy is responsible for the fuel cell with the goal to refine the technology for a low cost fuel cell stack, involving also Exergy’s sister companies Cell Impact for bipolar plates and Helbio for developing a catalyst based on carbon nano tube.
Other important partners are ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Environment, POLIMI, Politecnico di Milano, and CNR, the Public Institute of Study and Research – Department of Membrane technology.
Many studies have highlighted that Micro cogeneration based on fuel cells is one of the most promising technologies in terms of energy efficiency, but today there are no cogeneration systems of that size available on the market.
"The potential for improvement of the fuel cell technology for residential applications is strongly increased by the fact that our sister companies Helbio and Cell Impact can support us with first in class technologies for bipolar plates, electrodes and catalysts, thereby enabling us to develop high temperature fuel cell stacks for higher efficiency and reduced cost. This project will give us impulse to look at the future with increased hope and enthusiasm, since we will gain all the technical knowledge necessary to proceed further on the way to industrialization of fuel cells for the consumer market", says Angelo D’Anzi, Managing Director of Exergy Fuel Cells.