September 29, 2005
 Dr. Stephen Grot of
Ion Power was awarded the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award for
Innovation September 29, 2005. Pictured right are Bruce Logan and
Hong Lui of Penn State University who performed the experiments which
demonstrated the idea suggested by Grot. The patent pending process
needs more research and development dollars to bring the technology to
a commercial realization said Grot. However the opportunities are
great, leading to every local municipality having the opportunity to
make hydrogen in a cost effective way. You can see the article
in Popular Mechanics November issue by click
here. Learn more about how the technology works by clicking
here.
April 22, 2005 - Scientists at Ion Power together with Penn State researchers, have invented a new way to adapt a
Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) to coax the microbes to generate hydrogen instead of electricity from biomass. The process essentially uses a microbial
fuel cell (MFC) and instead of supplying oxygen to the cell, a small voltage is applied and the microbes extract hydrogen from a biomass containing
wastewater stream. For the first time, the process enables bacteria to generate four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass as compared to
typical fermentation processes alone.
Dr. Stephen Grot, President and Founder of Ion Power says, “Although our findings are very new and much research would be required before any commercial
implementation, our team has demonstrated a new and novel process that significantly increases the efficiency of generating hydrogen as compared to
conventional water electrolysis”
The new approach is described in a publication, “Electrochemically Assisted Microbial Production of Hydrogen from Acetate”, released online and
scheduled for a future issue of Environmental Science and Technology.
January 4, 2005 - Ion Power's NAFION® membranes provide relief to the Tsunami survivors. New Life International of Indiana orders 1000 NAFION® membranes for use in its water purification systems.
We are very happy to see NAFION® help the people in Asia effected by this tragedy. Survivors use New Life International's small electroyzer powered by a car battery removed from a flooded car to
make enough chlorine to disinfect hundreds of gallons of water at a time. Ion Power's staff reacted quickly and provided the membranes below its costs.
May 25, 2004 - Ion Power is awarded US Patent 6,740,445 for the improvement of fuel cell electrodes for performance under dry air
conditions and contaminated fuel streams.
May 11, 2004 - Ion Power is awarded US Patent 6,733,914 for the improvement of fuel cell membranes.
March 15, 2004 - Ion Power announced that it has awarded a cost shared subcontract to the Delaware State University.
This subcontract worth $750k over a four year period is for the study of NAFION® and platinum group metal materials recovered from end-of-life fuel cell systems.
Ion Power has a five year cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy to conduct research and development leading to technologies associated with the
recycling and recovery of these components.
November 4, 2003 - Ion Power Inc is awarded
US Patent 6,641,862 disclosing the novel and cost effective approach
for the manufacturer of Ion Power's state of the art PEM catalyst
coated membranes.
October 24, 2003 - Ion Power Inc is awarded
the Wharton Business School's PHILLY-100(tm) Award. This award
is given to the fastest growing privately held entrepreneurial
companies located in the Greater Philadelphia region. Ion Power
demonstrated one of the fasted sustained overall revenue growth
over the past 3 year period. This award demonstrates that the
Ion Power business model is one well matched to the demands of
our High-Tech fuel cell industry.
September 26, 2003 - Ion Power Inc is
awarded a $3.3 Million Department of Energy Grant to study the
recycling of spent Catalyst Coated Fuel Cell Membranes. This award
will help address an important issue sometimes overlooked when
a paradigm shifting industry comes of age. Recovery of the spent
PGM's and other valuable materials from end-of-life fuel cell
equipment will ensure a sustainable industry.
January 14, 2003 – The
Japanese Fuel Cell Project Team visits Ion Power’s facility
in Bear, Delaware. This group of Japanese businessmen and government
representatives, comprised of delegates from some of Japan’s
largest auto makers, power authorities, and government ministries,
made Ion Power one of their stops on a global tour of innovative
companies advancing fuel cell technology.
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