Acumentrics receives $15.6M grant for solid oxide fuel cells
Acumentrics, a Westwood, Mass. technology startup working on solid oxide fuel cells in the kilowatt generation range, has received a $15.6 million grant from the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Like many fuel cell companies, Acumentrics ultimately hopes to sell to the US military, and for that purpose makes a range of high-output cells for use by ground units, as well as industries like telecommunications.
However, the company also hopes to move its cells into the markets for home power and heating and cooling. Part of the grant specifies development of a 10KW generator unit, which would have more extensive off-grid uses.
And last year, Acumentrics made two announcements of prototypes for off-beat fuel cell technology. One prototype, it said, would work on a cell powered by ammonia, which would be converted internally to hydrogen and nitrogen. Another, which we mentioned briefly, would run on nearly any fossil fuel-based product (like gasoline, methane or propane), at twice the efficiency of a generator.
Aside from its government grants, Acumentrics also received an investment in 2000 from oil giant Texaco worth five percent of the company. Fuel cells are sometimes used in off-grid drilling and exploration.
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Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.