Technology  Pioneers 2006 in Energy

CMR Fuel Cell Ltd., United Kingdom I CEO Interview
Representative:Mr John Halfpenny, Chief Executive Officer
Company Profile: CMR Fuel Cells Limited is a UK developer of fuel cell stacks for portable and small stationary power generation applications. The company intends to become a leading supplier of fuel cell technology and products, based on its simple but revolutionary stack architecture and through its relationships with other key organisations.
Innovation: Conventional fuel cells generate electricity through chemical reactions stimulated by the presence of electrocatalysts. In order to maximize electricity generation, they use platinum catalysts and separate the fuel and oxidants with electrolyte membranes and conductive flow-field plates between each cell in the stack. Without such separation, heat would be generated instead of electricity. CMR uses a counter-intuitive approach: fuel and air are allowed to mix together but are prevented from direct reaction by using selective electrocatalysts. A CMR stack has a single input feed and a single exhaust stream. Because there is no longer a need for physical separation of fuel and oxidant, impermeable membranes, separators, seals and manifolds are no longer required. CMR’s patented technology eliminates the bulkiest and most costly elements of traditional fuel cell stacks.

Ecology Coatings, USA I CEO Interview
Representative: Mr Richard Stromback, Chief Executive Officer
Company Profile: Ecology Coatings is a company focusing on the development of nano-engineered, ultraviolet curable coatings. Using a platform of integrated nano-material technologies, the company creates proprietary coatings with unique performance attributes. Ecology Coatings collaborates with industry leaders to develop revolutionary high-value, high-performance coatings for military, automotive, industrial, electronic and medical applications.
Innovation: Ecology Coatings has single-handedly outdone the R&D efforts at the world’s biggest chemical companies with the invention of the only high-performance, ultraviolet-curable, 100 percent solids nano-coatings. Requiring only a few seconds of UV exposure to form a durable barrier, the proprietary coatings have been commercialized for over 10 years and are currently being applied via conventional techniques to plastics, metals, electronics, composites, paper and more. Beyond pioneering an economically viable market-ready coating technology that drives 99 percent reductions in time, 80 percent energy efficiency and enables new technologies for those various applications, Ecology Coatings’ innovation stayed true to the initial aim of environmental sustainability. Unlike traditional paints, Ecology Coatings products contain no polluting solvents or VOCs, reducing regulatory burdens and making the company’s nano-coatings an innovation that’s as good for the environment as it is for business, a quality that continues to attract lucrative licensing agreements from the industry’s biggest players including DuPont and Red Spot.

Energy Innovations, USA I CEO Interview
Representative: Mr Bill Gross, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Company Profile: Energy Innovations was founded in 2000 to deliver cost-effective, grid-competitive solar electric power. The company is developing the world’s first mass-produced rooftop photovoltaic tracking concentrator system, called the Sunflower, designed to bring the cost of solar below that of utility-supplied electricity. Energy Innovations is an operating company of Idealab, a creator and operator of technology businesses.
Innovation: Today, traditional photovoltaic (PV) electricity systems do not return enough on investment to warrant their purchase without government or utility-sponsored rebates and incentives. Our goal is to make solar a logical and compelling investment by radically reducing payback periods – turning cost-ineffective solar into cost-effective solar, thereby not only impacting the existing solar market but more importantly opening up a large portion of the much broader, $2 trillion world energy market to pollution-free, on-site generation of electricity.

EnOcean GmbH, Germany I CEO Interview
Representative: Mr Marcus Brehler, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Company Profile: EnOcean has become the de facto standard for sensors that are wireless, battery-less and maintenance free. Our groundbreaking components create energy seemingly from nothing. The slightest change in pressure, the smallest variation in temperature is enough to generate power for our ultra efficient sensors to make their readings and transmit their results.
Innovation: The EnOcean radio protocol has been optimised to transmit information with utmost reliability using extremely little power while ensuring that the products of customers using EnOcean technology are compatible with each other. The result is sensors that do not need batteries and therefore do not need maintenance. Removing the need for maintenance not only drastically reduces the life-cycle costs of a sensor; it also opens up the possibility of numerous new applications. The basic idea for this unique innovative technology is based on a simple observation: A sensor recording measured value changes at the same time changes the energy state. A switch is pressed; the temperature changes or the luminous intensity varies. These processes contain sufficient energy to allow the reading of a sensor and the transmission of radio signals across a distance of up to 300 metres.

Innovalight Inc., USA I CEO Interview
Representative: Mr Conrad Burke, President and Chief Executive Officer
Company Profile: The Company is devoted to developing next generation efficient energy solutions such as solid-state lighting and solar energy applications based on its novel silicon nanocrystal materials. The unique optoelectronic properties of these quantum dots, coupled with the innovative device structures they enable, make them singularly qualified to meet that need. Although physically small, the potential for these materials are enormous, as they can lower costs and increase efficiencies in the energy, electronics, and life sciences markets.
Innovation: Innovalight’s first application targets solar energy applications. Innovalight has discovered that the unique light emission and absorption properties of silicon can be tuned at the quantum level. Based on the size of the nanoparticle, the entire emission and absorption spectrum of colors including, that absorbed from sunlight can be achieved. Innovalight believes this technology will have enormous cost-saving effects versus tradition crystalling silicon solutions.

Intelligent Energy, United Kingdom I COO Interview
Representative: Dr Mark Lawson-Statham, Chief Operating Officer
Company profile: Intelligent Energy is a leading developer of fuel cells and hydrogen generation technology. World beating performances and innovative designs have led to the production of fuel cell platforms for a wide range of applications, including automotive, aerospace and distributed generation.
Innovation: In March 2005, Intelligent Energy unveiled ENV, the world's first purpose-built, fuel-cell motorbike - ahead of any of the world's leading automotive companies. The ENV (Emissions Neutral Vehicle) bike was engineered and purpose-built from the ground up, based around Intelligent Energy's world-beating CORE fuel cell, to demonstrate the real, everyday applicability of fuel cell technology. The compact and efficient CORE is completely detachable from the bike and could be used to power anything from a motorboat to a small domestic property.

MBA Polymers Inc. , USA
Representative: Dr Michael Biddle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Company Profile: MBA Polymers, Inc. (MBA) is the recognized leader at recycling engineering plastics from durable goods and other complex waste streams such as electronics; computers and business equipment; as well as automobiles, appliances, and even sports equipment.
Innovation: MBA Polymers has perfected a completely automated high-tech process using over 30 individual unit operations. This process starts with completely mixed waste streams ranging in size from whole computer or car parts, etc. to shredded bits 10 mm in size (depending on how the initial electronics or automotive recycler did their business) and separates this mixture into ferrous metal, nonferrous metal and numerous types of plastics (depending on the number of separation modules employed).