The Other Fuel Cells | Green Energy News

February 2, 2003 – Vol.7 No.45

THE OTHER FUEL CELLS.

While all the interest in fuel cells is focused toward those that operate on hydrogen, there are still other fuel cell technologies out there that remain a possibility as a clean energy source for portable, back-up and vehicular applications. Those others are ones that use metals as fuel, particularly zinc.

ZOXY Energy Systems has received 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million) in funding from BASF Venture Capital Gmbh to further develop the zinc/air fuel cell technology ZOXY is offering. BASF Venture Capital specializes in venture capital for businesses whose focus is in chemistry, such as the electrochemical reaction in zinc/air fuel cells. BASF Venture Capital is a subsidiary of BASF Future Business which is a business unit of global chemical company BASF.

ZOXY was established in 2000 and manufactures individual zinc/air cells which can be used in arrays to make power supply devices. The company makes cells that can be recharged, like a battery, or refueled by replacing sacrificial zinc anodes. Anodes can be recycled (remelted) and used over and over, indefinitely.

Near term applications for the zinc/air fuel cells include scooters, wheelchairs, mobile cleaning machines as well as portable power sources. Vehicle applications are also possible. Vehicles could be recharged like a conventional battery electric vehicle or refueled by removing and replacing zinc anodes. In a small vehicle this could be done by hand, in a larger one anodes or cells could be replaced with robotics, similar to industrial robots.

Zinc/air devices are considered fuel cells because they can be refueled. And like hydrogen fuel cells they are comprised of a series of individual cells working together in groups to generate a sufficient amount of electricity. Both zinc and hydrogen fuel cells grab electrons to create electric current flow through a chemical reaction. Visit ZOXY at http://www.zoxy.de/.