Franklin Fuel Cells Receives Major Grant From Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority

Malvern, PA-- Franklin Fuels Cells, Inc. has received a major grant of $408,737 from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, also known as PEDA.
The announcement from the office of Governor Edward G. Rendell acknowledged both the state’s “investments to support clean energy projects” and Franklin’s role in that mission. According to the governor’s office, the grant is “… for an applied research project for ongoing development of solid oxide fuel cell technology. Within 12 months, Franklin Fuel Cells expects to have a core direct-oxidation solid oxide fuel cell technology that has been proven to be technically feasible, economically viable and ready for incorporation into pre-commercial products.”

Responding to the announcement, John Law, Franklin’s President and CEO, said, “ We’re obviously very delighted and appreciative. PEDA is going to make a major difference in the future of energy efficiency in Pennsylvania, and we’re proud to be chosen as part of the team. It’s a real acknowledgement of our unique technology.”

Law added that the grant will allow Franklin to greatly increase its in-house capabilities by expanding its current state-of-the-art facility to reduce its design/build/test cycles, thereby permitting faster analysis and implementation of results “to further speed technology development and product enhancement”. Law said that Franklin calls the improved capability its “Rapid Cycles of Learning” strategy, saying “This allows us to execute our next phase of our strategy which will result in faster and better learning at dramatically reduced costs.”

Franklin’s proprietary DOSOFC technology is unique among current SOFC development technologies in that the company’s patented process employs a copper-ceria impregnated anode. (The technology was initially developed by a team of scientists at the University of Pennsylvania.) Franklin’s anode technology generates power by operating directly on currently-available hydrocarbon fuels without the need for fuel reformation or hydrogen, and is not prone to Carbon or sulfur fouling that results in dramatically reduced fuel cell life and efficiency.

Franklin’s technology is currently so fuel-flexible that it has been demonstrated and proven to run on virtually every commercially-available liquid and gaseous fuel, as it has already demonstrated on retail pump gasoline, diesel, kerosene, ethanol and naphtha as well as on natural gas, propane, butane and hydrogen. The result, according to Franklin, is a more efficient system that is simpler in design and construction.

Franklin Fuel Cells is an early-stage, venture-backed SOFC technology-development company located in Malvern, PA, about 30 miles from downtown Philadelphia, PA. Its Intellectual Property portfolio consists of 8 U.S. patents, 30 U.S. patent applications, and 13 invention disclosures. For more details on the company and its proprietary SOFC technology, contact: Mr. John Law, Franklin Fuel Cells, Inc., 83 Great Valley Parkway, Malvern, PA 19355, or call (610) 640-7545.