Fuel cell developer Acumentrics Corporation has shipped a 5kW solid oxide fuel cell system (SOFC) to Hera Holdings in Barcelona, Spain for a demonstration system using biogas from a Hera landfill site to generate heat and electricity.

WESTWOOD, Mass., October 2, 2007 - Fuel cell developer Acumentrics Corporation has shipped a 5kW solid oxide fuel cell system (SOFC) to Hera Holdings in Barcelona, Spain for a demonstration system using biogas from a Hera landfill site to generate heat and electricity.

"This demonstration will establish how the efficiency of new SOFC technology improves the cost-effectiveness and power generation capability of SOFCs in recovering energy from common municipal wastes," said Gary Simon, Acumentrics' CEO. SOFC systems are typically at least twice as efficient at generating electricity from a given fuel source as internal combustion generators, while producing only negligible emissions compared with significant levels of NOx and CO2 from internal combustion engines, Simon noted.

In modern landfills, methane production ranges between 50 and 100 kg per tonne of municipal solid waste, according to the International Energy Administration, with about 50% of the gas able to be recovered and used for power and heat generation. In 22 European Union countries, landfill gas was used to generate more than 36,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of power during 2006, compared with just over 20,000 GWh in the U.S. during 2005.

Hera Holdings S. A. is a privately held company headquartered in Barcelona, Spain with a commitment to environmental excellence, is Spain's second-largest waste management company. Hera's leading-edge knowledge of waste management technologies is now established throughout Spain, the rest of Europe and South America, and the company manages more than one million tons of waste per year with the latest technology and quality standards. The company has developed a system to cleanse biogas from landfills to make it possible to use as a fuel for cogeneration, and for the first time in Spain, as a fuel for vehicles.

Acumentrics' unique, durable, fuel-flexible tubular ceramics-based fuel cell technology has exceeded performance standards in U.S. Department of Energy Solid-State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) Phase I tests, demonstrated the ability to operate for 1300-hours on synthetic JP-8 fuel, become the first biogas-fueled SOFC system in an installation at the innovative GlashusEtt environmental information center in Stockholm, and received a 2007 New England Innovation Award from the Smaller Business Association of New England. Acumentrics also sells rugged, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to the military and other mission-critical markets.

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