Contact Robb Edwards:
781-933-8339

F.A.Q's

What are the serious pitfalls to fuel cell commercialization and how does ZTEK stack up against the competition?
1) Many fuel cell systems lack the ability to run on commercially available fuels (example, pure hydrogen is not available from a pipeline or from a neighborhood filling station and the infrastructure won't be available in near future) ZTEK's system runs on natural gas, propane, and other readily available fuel sources.

2) Peripheral issues become more burdensome than primary operations; i.e., lack of hydrogen availability for the foreseeable future. ZTEK's system isn't affected by this hydrogen problem as it generates the needed hydrogen mix internally from other commercially available fuels.

3) Many prototype fuel cell systems lack the enabling traits for hardware simplification to meet commercial cost threshold (example, the low temperature fuel cell systems currently available on the market, following more than a decade of product hardware refinement after the initial prototype introduction, have not been able to reduce the cost below $4000/kW)

ZTEK's system has been developed along a final product format to show potential customers the actual size, weight and system simplicity which are of multifold advantageous over the competitors.

4) Along the lines of the previous problem is the fact that many systems being introduced are too heavy and/or too large for many of the distributed generation applications they are being sought to supply; i.e. rooftop installations and tight space requirements. ZTEK's system is greatly lighter and occupies a much smaller footprint and volume than any of the competitors by a factor of three to five.

5) Over burdensome system operating procedures due to balance of plant complexity ZTEK's system has demonstrated in its prototype field testing its maintainability with commercially available components and normal service personnel.