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E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Caltech and University of Southern California Fuel Cell Technology to be Commercialized |
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PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, Feb. 27 -/E-Wire/-- A new company, Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation (DMFCC) has been formed to commercialize the direct methanol fuel cell technology developed at the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the University of Southern California (USC).
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DMFCC, Caltech and USC have signed a letter of intent for DMFCC to acquire rights to 22 issued and over 40 pending U.S. and foreign patents. These include the original and fundamental patent for using methanol dissolved in water as the fuel. In exchange, Caltech and USC will become equity shareholders in DMFCC and receive a royalty on sales.
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Dr. Carl Kukkonen is DMFCC's Chief Executive Officer. Previously Dr. Kukkonen was Director of JPL's Center for Space Microelectronics Technology and was Ford Motor Company's expert on hydrogen as an alternative automotive fuel. "Direct methanol has two significant advantages', reports Kukkonen. "First, methanol is a readily available liquid fuel, whereas hydrogen is a gas. Second, our fuel cell uses methanol directly as a liquid in a low temperature system, without needing to reform it into hydrogen gas. Therefore, it is well suited to portable and mobile applications.'
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DMFCC is actively seeking investors and strategic partners for its activities.
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Technology
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Direct methanol fuel fells have been demonstrated at JPL in sizes ranging from 1 watt to 1.4 kilowatt. Fuel cells replace batteries in some applications, generators in others and can be the power source for electric vehicles. They are highly efficient, silent, non-polluting power generators. Fuel cells can be used to power a wide variety of devices such as cell phones, laptop computers, leaf blowers, golf carts and automobiles.
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About Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation (DMFCC)
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DMFCC, located near Pasadena, is a portfolio company of ViaSpace Technologies LLC. (see www.viaspace.com). ViaSpace was formed in 1998 to commercialize technologies from Caltech, JPL and other university and government laboratories. ViaSpace currently has six companies in its portfolio.
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/SOURCE:
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DMFCC |
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02-27-2002 |
/CONTACT:
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DMFCC, Dr. Carl Kukkonen, CEO, 626/296-6310, info@dmfuelcell.com |
| /WEB SITE: |
http://www.viaspace.com
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