ITM Power Plc (ITMPF)

[Gerry321]

basbas
Re Hi Drive
Norsk Hydro swimming pool size electrolysers are the Daddy of all the Hi Drive designs
They use a wet electrolyzer cell for their OB .....potassium hydroxide solution in a box wth two non platinum electrodes
The process has worked well for 100 years but does not give the same H2 purity as a pem cell,requires frequent attention ands maintenance to keep going and can freeze in winter, The wet electrolyte solution gets contaminated and this affects its operation
This design is relatively expensive to make outside the novelty ones peddled by the cheapies on the web but more durable I think its GM who have tackled this from a cost reduction standpoint with the aim of getting the cost down to around $400/Kw you can check this out yourself on the net
I would guestimate that the Hi Drive selling price of
c$11600 is so high partly because they have no competition partly because to maintain the value propostion they have went to extraordinary lengths to "prove" the payback and keep the price up
eg satellite tracking of mpg
payment on installments
no savings no charge etc
They will be liquidated as soon as ITM get their OB and system on the market
Re patents
Since the designs are different it oculd ony be the basic idea that Hi drive could claim was patented..I doubt it is patentable enough to threaten ITM since the perfect analogy is an ICE When ICEs came out others copied the idea but invented their own version Like wise with pc operating systems
Msdos v Apple v Unix


Hope this helps