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CMR Fuel Cells plc is a high growth developer of fuel cell 'stacks' for portable and small stationary power generation applications.
CMR is targeting the consumer electronics industry where there is growing demand for new power solutions which are smaller and longer running than today’s Lithium batteries.
This demand is being driven by the increasing power requirements of portable electronics devices which have outgrown incremental improvements in the performances of traditional batteries. As a result, consumer frustration with short 'run-time', ‘return to mains’ recharging and questionable battery safety is compelling the electronics industry to develop and deploy suitable alternatives for power delivery.
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) power systems can deliver longer electrical equipment run-times than conventional batteries as well as delivering other superior performance features such as ‘instant recharge anywhere’, which are ideally suited for modern feature rich, ‘always on, always connected’ wireless devices.
In 2006, an estimated 1 billion Li-Ion battery packs were sold world-wide to power portable consumer electronic devices. This number is expected to rise to an estimated 1.9 billion in the year 2008.
To exploit this opportunity, CMR has assembled experienced and capable technical, commercial and management teams which, when combined with its world-class, purpose built facilities and broad and growing intellectual property portfolio, strongly positions it to be at the forefront of its high-growth target markets.
CMR is developing DMFC stacks – which are the heart of the fuel cell system, in the range of 5 Watts to 50 Watts of electrical power. These are suitable for applications ranging from media players and games consoles through to laptop computers and remote monitoring devices. Prototypes of these stacks powering representative demonstration systems have been shown to potential customers around the world.
CMR is focussed on building commercial traction and revenue in emerging Asian markets. In addition to permanent representation in Japan, there are active commercial programs in Korea, Taiwan and China. CMR has trials underway with a number of OEMs, including Samsung SDI of Korea.
CMR listens closely to the portable electronics and fuel cell industries and has clear strategies to develop and deploy products that are competitive. To this end, CMR is pursuing an over-lapping, two phase strategy which will allow it to meet the needs of near-term ‘early adopter’ markets as well as mid- to long-term mass markets.
The Company has broad, unique knowledge of all aspects of portable fuel cells – including platinum free catalysts, membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), mixed and separated reactant stack architectures, DMFC systems and specialist testing. Acid membrane-based first generation products, which will enable CMR to build early market presence in less price sensitive applications are being developed in parallel with Platinum-free, alkaline membrane based technology which will allow CMR to follow-up with lower cost products for later mass market applications.
CMR is based in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
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