FuelCell’s military contract receives another refresher

Danbury, Conn.-based fuel cell power plant developer FuelCell Energy (Nasdaq:FCEL) said today it’s been awarded $1.5 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to continue developing its electrochemical hydrogen separator (EHS) technology.

The EHS system, which separates hydrogen from a gas mixture in an efficient way while generating electricity, has potential industrial and transportation applications, according to the company.

But it’s not the first time the military has funded the technology. In 2007, FuelCell Energy received $1 million for its EHS research from the U.S. Army (see FuelCell Energy military contract refreshed). 

In September, the company also received $1.9 million in stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a microchannel high temperature recuperator for its fuel cell systems.

FuelCell Energy manufactures high efficiency, ultra-clean power plants using renewables and other fuels for commercial, industrial, government, and utility customers (see FuelCell Energy rises on analyst comments).

The latest EHS research is being backed by the Army Corps' Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory.

The 20-month effort is expected to help scale the EHS technology and ready the company for field demonstration.

The EHS research is expected to contribute to FuelCell Energy’s development of its DFC-H2 product, which integrates the EHS system with the company's high-efficiency Direct FuelCell power plant to produce ultra-clean electricity, heat and pure hydrogen.

Conventional methods of separating hydrogen require mechanical compression, but FuelCell Energy said its proprietary EHS technology has no moving parts and does not use compression, which could lead to energy efficiencies.

The company competes with others in the space including HydroGen and UTC Power (see Are stationary fuel cells sexy?).

In June, FuelCell also raised $24.2 million for the development of its fuel cell technology and expansion of manufacturing in a direct sale of 6.7 million shares of common stock (see Cash shortage? Not in wind).