Business
Hydrogen Offers New Hope
Hydrogen Offers New Hope.
About this update from Itm Power Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n RNS Number : 6550Y ITM Power PLC 09 July 2008 \n \n\n\n\n\nFor Immediate Release\n\n\n9 July 2008\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nITM Power plc\n\n('ITM' or 'the Company')\n\nMedia Launch of Home Refueller and Bi-Fuel Car\n\nFollowing the announcement on 30 June 2008, ITM Power (AIM: ITM), is pleased to announce that it will be launching its home refuelling system and bi-fuel car today in London.\n\nThe following press release accompanies today's launch:\n\nHydrogen breakthrough offers new hope in fuel crisis\n\nA British company has unveiled a hydrogen refuelling station and a hydrogen-powered car which could revolutionise commuting while cutting fuel costs and CO2 emissions. \n\nThe conventional petrol-engined Ford Focus, which has completed successful urban commuting trials, has been converted to run on hydrogen, which burns without emitting CO2, and could ultimately reduce drivers' dependence on fossil fuels.\n\nThe company involved, ITM Power Plc, has also revealed a hydrogen home refuelling station, capable of producing the gas from water and electricity, which it says could ultimately offer drivers an alternative to conventional fuels and provide a new power source for homes and businesses. The station overcomes one of the fundamental stumbling blocks to a hydrogen economy - the lack of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure and utility supply network. \n\nIt has taken scientists and chemists at the company's Sheffield research base, currently Europe's largest electrolyser and fuel cell development centre, eight years to create a low-cost means of manufacturing hydrogen. Its patented electrolyser-based refuelling station uses a unique low-cost polymer which dispenses with the need for expensive platinum and can be manufactured at 1 per cent of the cost of traditional membrane materials.\n\nThe result is a hydrogen production system, small enough to be used in a home or business, which can generate the gas from a supply of water and off-peak or renewable electricity - power created by wind, wave, solar or nuclear energy. The stored hydrogen could then be used to fuel converted cars or provide power for domestic or commercial purposes. \n\nThe Ford Focus was chosen by ITM Power because it is one of Europe's top-selling models. In its converted form, it is effectively a bi...