Astris Energi Heads Toward Market for Small Fuel Cell Systems.Business Editors/Energy Writers MISSISSAUGA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 14, 2000 While other companies attempting to develop fuel cell power generators are focusing on the eventual automobile market -- Honda says it will have a fuel cell-powered car by 2003 -- Astris Energi Inc., a pioneer that has devoted 17 years and $12 million to the fuel cell field, is focusing on developing fuel cell systems to power the millions of small vehicles around the world -- golf carts, forklift trucks, other electric vehicles and also portable generators of all kinds. Jiri K. Nor, president of Astris Energi and leader of the technical teams working here and at Astris' subsidiary in the Czech Republic Czech Republic, Czech Česká Republika (2005 est. pop. 10,241,000), republic, 29,677 sq mi (78,864 sq km), central Europe. It is bordered by Slovakia on the east, Austria on the south, Germany on the west, and Poland on the north. , said last week, "We believe we will be able to demonstrate the first example of our system's commercial capabilities -- a viable fuel cell-powered golf cart -- within the next year." The Astris program is based on Alkaline Fuel Cell The alkaline fuel cell (AFC), also known as the Bacon fuel cell after its British inventor, is one of the most developed fuel cell technologies and is the cell that flew Man to the Moon. (AFC (1) (Application Foundation Classes) A class library from Microsoft that provides an application framework and graphics, graphical user interface (GUI) and multimedia routines for Java programmers. ) technology used to provide electric power and pure water in all of NASA's manned space vehicles. The company believes it has significant advantages both in cost and operating features over the Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) A standard for secure e-mail on the Internet. It supports encryption, digital signatures and digital certificates as well as both private and public key methods. Not widely used, work on PEM later evolved into S/MIME. See MIME. ) concept being followed by other companies seeking to enter the promising fuel cell market. Many experts in the field agree. Astris expects to move to larger quarters in nearby Oakville, Ontario Oakville (2006 population 165,613[2]) is a town on Lake Ontario in southern Ontario, Canada, midway between Toronto (about 31 km or 19 mi away) on its eastern border and Hamilton (about 20 km or 12 mi away) from its western border. soon and is completing an interim financing Interim financing A short-term loan made to a company on the condition that a takeout will follow with long-term or intermediate financing. interim financing The financing that supports a transaction until permanent financing can be arranged. to support its near-term growth. Management believes, however, that the huge markets it intends to address may lead it to consider a working relationship with a substantial concern. |
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