Hydrogenics may be concerned by this ITM item culled from the 31 July Statement
which said
Para 1
“It has been a very difficult year for the Company because we have had to access externally sourced engineering skills and components to integrate into our first complete systems. Quality control of components and manufacturing reproducibility delayed the demonstration of our refuelling system and the hydrogen petrol bi-fuel car until July.”
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The first question we should consider is
Why are ITM telling us this story ?
Whats the point ?
We are really left with only two possibilities
1 ITM are apologising to the shareholders for all the delays in launching the HRU
And perhaps
2 JH is also reaffirming that ITM made mistakes in trusting their suppliers and although they handled the problems professionally, we shouldn’t be surprised if they are let down again
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Well actually
All we shareholders really have been let down by ITM on is the timing of the HRU and Bi Fuel car demo since the ABRO situ seems to have been inspired by the MoD
So we are entitled to read Para 1 solely in the context of the HRU and Bi Fuel car
And if we do
As always with ITM
There is a little nugget lodged between the lines
This is explained below
In Para 1 ITM tell us they had problems finding the right engineering cos and people to help them turn their brilliant hand made HRU into a finished green box
ITM also say that even after they found the right engineering cos the problems continued
The Cos could not supply the bits needed for the HRU to the standards ITM needed to turn the 10 KW electrolyser into a green box
So what do we know about the problems ITM have had with their HRU ?
Well
We know that in Jan 2008 ITM had been blaming their cell module supplier for not giving them an injection moulded electrolyser housing that could operate at 75 bar
We know that in March 2008 ITM announced that the electrolyser had been tested satisfactorily under a pressure of 75 bar
Meaning it had been put into a pressure vessel (NOT A CELL HOUSING) and pressurised to 75 bar by a gas probably nitrogen.
We were never EVER told if the cell housing problem had been solved
Most people assumed that it was when the bi fuel car and HRU demo was announced
However
Nobody at the 9 July demo ever got seeing what was inside the green box …which was a bit strange since ITM were quite willing to show off their electrolysers at previous demos
So why would they want to keep it quiet this time ?
I`ll give you one reason and a rationale to support it
Nobody got a look inside the green box because it contained an electrolyser inside a tank which was pressurised to 75 bar
Why could this be true ?
Because
In the July 31 statement ITM said
Para 2
“In order to reduce the Company's risk to third party component suppliers, ITM has developed three different stack technologies in
parallel which have all been successfully tested. Having achieved the 'gold standard' of a high pressure electrolyser operating without additional costs of compression, these different stack designs will ensure that we can offer an optimized and cost effective solution to a wide range of applications.”
Well
If Para 2 is read in the context of the 75 bar HRU cell module being unable to be injection moulded to an acceptable quality control standard
Then
ITM could get round this problem simply by placing the electrolyser inside a pressure vessel which was made by a different process from injection moulding
This wouldn’t stop the Green Box still being used to house the whole HRU assembly But it would not be pressurised at all since the pressure was contained within a cylinder inside the box
And
The implication of this is
ITM have yet again announced a goal that has already been achieved since they also said in the 31 July announcement
New Developments as of 28 July 2008
“ITM has now begun planning the next logical step for hydrogen vehicles whereby a new low cost, light weight electrolyser stack is placed inside the high pressure hydrogen storage tank which is required on-board any hydrogen vehicle. The ultimate objective being a vehicle that is refueled with water and capable of producing and storing high pressure hydrogen onboard. This will require a combination of the Company's one-step 'flexible' cell technology with a suitable hydrogen storage vessel.”
In other words
The onboard electrolyser within a 75 bar tank is not at the planning stage
It is at the finished stage and has already replaced the original HRU design which was a stand alone electrolyzer self pressurising inside an injection moulded cell housing which also served as the external walls of the green box
And
If this is the case
ITM have already found a suitable hydrogen container which can fit inside the green box which is the size of a european fridge/freezer
and
The Roush /ITM approach to Local Authority Fleets will include the option of retrofitting an onboard electrolyser inside the H2 tank as well as the HRU for overnight charging
and
ITM having electrolysed to 75 bar inside an HRU may well have electrlysed to 75 bar inside the bi fuel car`s storage tank
and
May be well down the road of electrolysing to 300 bar
