http://www.afcenergy.com/

Dawnay, Day Corporate Broking Research Note

Aim Admission Document

Todays RNS,

I think we all expected news re South Korea being the first to come with any substance from an Asian Country, so this news re Thailand is very welcome indeed.

It also should be an indication of how production of the fuel cells are coming along as they must be looking at future demand being met with supply.

AFC will not want to be found wanting when specific order numbers come in.

I think we would appreciate further updates re the 15 month run, but I for one am not going to moan about todays news.

Well done AFC, you have temporarily calmed my impatience.

Let's hope so Greekman!

Morning Skinny,

I wonder if todays news will see a return of some posters on this thread, instead of you and I talking to each other.

Regards
Greek.

Sadly I find I do that on most threads on here - except the 'eponymous' thread!

Yes, I think interest in this site has gone down a lot over the last few years due to their poor IT system.

If it was not for the fact that MoneyAm's customer service had such a great response compared to that other site we both use, as well as other sites, most of their remaining customers would leave.

On looking at the effect todays RNS is having on the sp, as Victor Meldew states, 'I don't believe it'

What the *&£^ is happening!

I bought in about six months ago and appreciate all the posts on this thread as to be honest I know b*gger all about the company.

Apparently - nor do we!

Just had another look and six months ago I would have bought around the year low. Must have been about 4 months ago when they started climbing cos I bought around about the current price.

Power Up and Trading Update

Air Products joins Power Up project
Trading and Operational Update

AFC Energy (AIM: AFC), the fuel cell energy developer for industry, is pleased to announce that Air Products PLC ("Air Products") has agreed to become a key strategic partner within the Power Up programme, the Company's leading project to generate and supply electricity by using surplus hydrogen produced at a major chemical plant.

Air Products, one of the world's top industrial gases groups, replaces Industrial Chemicals Limited, the Essex-based chemicals manufacturer, which had planned to participate in the €6.1 million EU-backed project, as announced by AFC Energy in June 2012. The project will install one of the world's largest alkaline fuel cell power systems.

As a result of the partnership with Air Products, the project will now be sited in Stade, northern Germany, where Air Products operates a major industrial gas processing plant that sources hydrogen from an adjoining major chemicals complex operated by Dow Chemicals.

The Company commenced its work on the Power Up project in April 2013 and remains on track to install the first KORE system in Germany during 2014 with it expected to become operational in the second half subject to local permitting. AFC will initially install two fuel cell systems in stages with a total 500kW electrical output.

This first system will be capable of running with 24 cartridges, expected to generate approaching 250kW when it reaches full power.

Ian Williamson, Chief Executive of AFC Energy, said: "The decision to move the project to Air Products provides us with the best possible opportunity to install and operate our KORE-branded fuel cell plant at a world-class industrial chemical/gases complex. It will also provide us with access and visibility to a significant quantity of clean hydrogen in a fully commercial setting. With our existing long term project with AkzoNobel continuing at Bitterfeld, Germany, we will soon have two installations in one of the world's most exciting and strongly government-supported markets for fuel cell energy."


Trading Update

AFC has continued to make strong technical progress although income in the financial year to 31 October 2013 will be lower than market expectations, whilst still ahead of last year. This is primarily due to the slower ramp up of the Power Up project and the desire of the South Korean market to have data from scaled-up systems, to facilitate larger opportunities more rapidly. Nevertheless, AFC has seen licence revenues improve and its existing grants delivered as expected. Despite bringing forward some spending in relation to the planned production of larger systems, AFC has maintained a tight control on the cost base. Net cash balances at the financial year end amounted to £6.9million (2012: £10.9million).

Ramp up of volume manufacturing

The Power Up project alone will - over time - necessitate the assembly of many thousands of fuel cells. Until now, AFC Energy's fuel cells have been hand-crafted but this is being translated to an automated process as the Company begins larger-scale, demonstration and commercial projects like Power Up. As a result, the planned investment in the scaling-up of manufacturing is being brought forward by approximately five months to introduce a more automated process.

AFC Energy will work with UK automation specialists, GB Innomech, who are developing automated stack assembly and stack disassembly systems. The result of this approach will be to enable manufacturing/maintenance facilities to be rolled out quickly and inexpensively.

To help facilitate this automated process AFC Energy has expanded its space at Dunsfold, by leasing an additional 4500 sq ft.


Markets / partners

In addition to Air Products, AFC Energy continues to work with several other partners to develop markets for the deployment of its fuel cells.

It is clear that there is a customer base in South Korea, and elsewhere, ready to take KORE systems on commercially attractive terms. AFC continues to actively pursue a number of possible strategic partners in South Korea and the local region.

AFC Energy took a further step towards establishing itself in the waste to energy sector with a £1.2 million licence agreement announced last week with the Thai subsidiary of Waste2tricity Ltd ("W2T"). The agreement will extend AFC's reach into the fast growing emerging markets of South East Asia, beginning with Thailand. AFC has also granted W2T a right of first refusal for the remainder of the ASEAN market where W2T intends to become active. This follows AFC's first licence deal of £1 million with W2T in respect of the UK market, announced in April 2012.

Ian Williamson commented: "We have an array of very credible development partners and many market opportunities. Our technical progress has been strong in the past year and we are cautiously and methodically putting all the building blocks in place to ensure successful commercialisation of our low-cost fuel cells for industrial energy."

Looks to be great news.

Initially the project with ICL was for 100kW of electrical output whereas now with Air Products its for 500kW electrical output.

The power up being bought forward by 5 months has to be down to forward looking demand getting ahead of possible supply.

Along with all the other bits mentioned, this has to be the blue touch paper that lights AFC's rocket.

A bit of a blip!

I know hindsight is a great thing, but when I saw this 'blip' I thought that the drop was so overdone that I was wondering if I had a spare grand to buy a few more.

Was still thinking about this when the sp went straight back to level.

As one of those who have slated AFC's PR of late, I do in this instance give AFC a big slice of leeway as no doubt the almost abandonment for the near future of placing the AFC system in the UK no doubt due to the procrastination of the main government players and the UK's usual total lack of foresight could not be released too early.

Once again the UK looses out to more forward looking areas of the world.

As for the main points, looks to be great news.

The project with ICL was for 100kW of electrical output whereas now with Air Products its for 500kW electrical output, and remember when it was 100kW it was still going to be the worlds largest installation of fuel cells.

Trouble is the market might just see the RNS as a none contract release and not for it's full benifit.

As to this effecting the sp, I gave up trying to read the effects of none contract RNS a while ago.

Looks like in my previous post I got KW mixed up with MW, so appologies.

A possible dilemma regarding South Korea.

I wonder if the success of the fuel cells longevity and power output has in a way gone against AFC in the short term.

I would think that S Korea was and still is happy to sit back for a few more months watching and waiting for the next fuel cell reliability update (15 months anytime now), whereas if the 9 or 12 month update had shown a sharp drop off in performance instead of a steady decline they would have been satisfied that it met their needs.

Strange logic, but logic all the same.

Directorate Change


AFC Energy (AIM: AFC), the fuel cell energy developer for industry, announces that Ian Balchin has resigned as a director of the Company with immediate effect in order to pursue his other business interests.

Tim Yeo, Chairman of AFC Energy, said: "We originally brought Ian into the Company to help it through its early stages of development and he has played a key part in transforming its prospects, building its profile and in particular in raising the funds required to take the business forward. Ian leaves us with the warm thanks of the Board and we wish him every success in the growing number of his other ventures."

Ian Balchin said: "I have relished the last five years with AFC Energy and leave the Company in good shape, well financed and in very capable hands ready for large-scale testing and scale-up. I shall continue to take a keen interest in the Company's progress whilst pursuing my other business interests."

No doubt he had signed a confidentiality agreement and although he is still on the board of wate2tricity, I would have though he would have stayed for a few more months to see AFC take off as has been hinted.

I would love to know a bit more detail on what his reasoning is, but obviously we are not going to find out.

Sp down today???

but probably yes...

.

Israeli scientists are claiming to have discovered a commercially marketable alternative to crude oil that could revolutionise energy usage within a decade.

On Wednesday, a team from Ben Gurion University unveiled a process to make an eco-friendly substance that will perform the same functions as oil.

The proto-fuel was created using a greenhouse gas and a chemical element that can be obtained from water.

“There is no magic here… this is viable,” said Moti Herskowitz, the chemical engineering professor who headed the research, just before publicising the discovery at the Bloomberg Fuel Choices Summit in Tel Aviv.

Dr Herskowitz’s process — which is yet to be patented — involves mixing carbon dioxide with water and synthetic gas, and passing it through a special reactor to create a “green feed” made up of liquid and gas. This feed will be used as the raw material for the refineries of the future instead of oil, he claimed. He added that it will be used to produce petrol, jet fuel and diesel.

And while the scarcity of oil is a constant concern for world leaders, the ingredients for Dr Herskowitz’s “green feed” are in plentiful supply. Hydrogen can be obtained from water — comprised of two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen atom — by “splitting” the chemical compound. And carbon dioxide can be “captured” from places where it is generated — an eco-friendly process as it means less of the gas is released into the environment. “This is a truly renewable fuel in terms of the environment,” said Dr Herskowitz.

While Dr Herskowitz has established the scientific basis for his process, he says that its true commercial potential will be realised in a few years. This is because various groups of scientists across the world are working on cheaper and more energy-efficient ways of dividing the elements within water, which is expected to bring down significantly the price of hydrogen derived from water.

“It’s all economics at the end of the day, because you’ve got to be competitive,” said Dr Herskowitz, who is in the process of establishing a start-up to bring the process to market.

“I believe that in five to ten years we’ll be able to be very competitive because of advances with water-splitting technologies.”

Professor Christopher Hardacre, a chemist at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “The efficient conversion of CO2 into fuel via reaction with H2 is very valuable and has the potential to be a significant development in the replacement of fossil fuels,” adding that the process developed by the BGU team was an “exciting prospect”.

Water-splitting has hitherto not been seen as sufficiently efficient to drive a viable fuel production process.

I caught this on the news this morning.

Toyota eyes mass production of fuel cell car by 2015