Alumifuel Power Corp. (AFPWD)

AlumiFuel Power is a Philadelphia-based early production stage alternative energy company that generates hydrogen gas and steam for multiple niche applications requiring on-site, on-demand fuel sources. AlumiFuel Power's hydrogen drives fuel cells for back-up, portable and remote power, fills inflatable devices such as weather balloons, and can replace costly, hard-to-handle and high pressure K-Cylinders; the steam/hydrogen combination also drives turbine-based underwater propulsion systems and auxiliary power systems.

This contract requires delivery of the system to the AFSOC customer by the end of February 2012, and includes 360 cartridges as well as a spare parts kit, a tool kit and two days of training by API engineers at the customer's site.

The PBIS-2000 expands the capability of API's current family of hydrogen generators, which includes the PBIS-1000 (for 100g balloons) and the PBIS-lite (designed for 30g pieball balloons). The PBIS-2000 generates sufficient hydrogen to inflate a 200g weather balloon within 20 minutes using up to 6 AlumiFuel Cartridges contained in a single reactor vessel; this represents significantly more hydrogen than is required for the PBIS-1000. While the footprint, weight and safety features of the PBIS-2000 are similar to the PBIS-1000, the configuration has been modified such that the system operates at ambient (atmospheric) pressure (below 10 psig) so that the user never has to deal with a high pressure system such as the industry standard K-Cylinder (2265 psig).

The current weather balloon lift gas market is pegged at $150-$200 million per year, and encompasses military as well as civil government meteorological users worldwide. Traditionally, helium has been used as the primary lift gas for weather balloons, but with the increasing scarcity and cost of helium, users are rapidly switching to hydrogen and API's PBIS family is far more mobile, safe, and cost effective than other on-site hydrogen generation systems. Based on customer feedback, API believes the PBIS family can become field standard and lift gas product of choice for NATO military users and meteorological customers worldwide. After purchasing any unit of the PBIS family, typical customers continue to purchase replacement cartridges to launch up to 700 balloons per unit each year (up to 4,200 cartridges).

API's President & CEO, Mr. David Cade, said, "This Air Force award validates API's unique Portable Balloon Inflation System technology and products. The PBIS-2000 is a significant addition to our PBIS family. Not only does this system fill an existing gap for much larger weather balloons, which constitute a greater portion of the market, but it represents a significant advancement in the state of hydrogen generation technology. The greatest inhibitor to launching weather balloons in remote locations -- where the military operates and considerable meteorological research is done -- is the cost and difficulty of transporting the source of lift gas. The PBIS family will drastically reduce these factors, and enable launches in previously inaccessible areas worldwide; this also creates a logistics supply chain for hydrogen to power fuel cells in the field."

ABOUT ALUMIFUEL POWER - AFPW
 

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