Synergy Produces Soot-Free Feed For Fuel Cell Use

CALGARY, Alberta, Feb. 15 Synergy Technologies Corp. today said it has successfully reformed each of the five major fossil fuels into the free hydrogen and other feeds commonly utilized as fuel for most types of fuel cells.

Most significantly, the company obtained these results while achieving two industry milestones -- eliminating the production of soot traditionally associated with heavy fossil fuels reforming, and reducing the power consumption of the reformer system to less than 5 percent.

In an experimental program recently completed, Synergy's SynGen reformer successfully converted natural gas, propane, gasoline, diesel and toluene into the hydrogen and other feeds suitable to supply all major types of fuel cells -- including the commonly used PEM (proton exchange membrane), SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) and MCFC (molten carbonate fuel cell). SynGen accomplished this process while eliminating soot production within the feeds, as well as by reducing consumption of the electricity produced by the fuel cell to as low as 2 percent.

To date, fuel cells have been unable to utilize the soot-laden feeds created by traditional reforming processes utilizing diesel and other heavy fossil fuels. In addition, fuel cells have been hampered by a loss of power efficiency resulting from the reformer's partial consumption of the very electricity the fuel cell is producing.

SynGen's cold plasma technology, which reforms fossil fuels with less energy consumption than do competing reforming processes, virtually eliminates soot production and allows for considerably improved power output by the fuel cell.

``We are very excited by these results,'' said Synergy CEO Barry J. Coffey. ``We believe they bring us considerably closer to securing business and product development arrangements with manufacturers of each of the major types of fuel cells.''

Synergy will first concentrate on securing such arrangements with fuel cell companies providing solutions for three major markets -- the military, flared or vented natural gas fuels, and assorted stationary sites around the world, he said.

Mr. Coffey said he believed the worldwide potential for these applications alone is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Initial commercialization of Synergy's SynGen reforming process for fuel cell use is expected to occur ``in the near-term,'' he said.

Synergy Technologies is developing and bringing to commercialization two separate and distinct proprietary and patented processes, CPJ and SynGen. Its highly efficient CPJ is a super-heated steam application that converts heavy oil and refinery bottoms into more usable, higher-API-gravity crude. Its novel SynGen technology converts natural gas and other fossil fuels to hydrogen and carbon monoxide for use in a variety of applications, including fuel cells. Synergy believes it will strongly impact the global energy industry through efficient and environmentally friendly technologies.