What is a Fuel Cell?

A fuel cell is an electro chemical machine that converts a fuel such as hydrogen or methanol directly into electricity.

Fuel cells are a very efficient method of converting fuel into electricity.

Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Funded in part by the National Research Counsel of Canada and the Alberta Research Council the Company has been developing a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) since 1997. The market potential for fuel cells is enormous with many experts predicting sales of over US$30 billion by 2010.

Pure Energy believes that direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) will be the first truly commercial portable fuel cells. Unlike other fuel cell technologies DMFCs use available, convenient liquid methanol rather than hydrogen gas as the fuel (hydrogen has many significant unsolved fuel supply and distribution challenges). Pure Energy's DMFC technology is based on using a flowing electrolyte technology that has shown up to a 30% efficiency and voltage improvement over other DMFC systems which consequently leads to the lowest cost projections in the industry.

There are many current and future applications for fuel cells including stand alone applications such as portable chargers and remote location power supplies. When used in conjunction with a battery in a "hybrid" system the potential applications increase significantly to include golf carts, fork lift trucks, cars, trucks, and buses. Pure Energy's DMFC development program is located in Calgary.

A prototype of a hybrid system was successfully completed in 2005. The project will be moved to the Company's facilities in Richmond Hill, Ontario in early 2006 for the production of a commercial demonstration unit with completion anticipated for the end of 2006.