PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — WATT Fuel Cell Corp
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — WATT Fuel Cell Corp., a developer and manufacturer of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) components and systems, has announced its purchase of tubular SOFC developer Pittsburgh Electric Engines Inc. (PEEI), Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. The acquisition agreement makes PEEI a wholly owned subsidiary of WATT and facilitates combining both companies’ fuel cell technologies and personnel into a single entity.
Dr. Caine Finnerty, president and CEO of WATT Fuel Cell, said, “With more than 37,000 hours of run time on its technology, PEEI has clearly established the legitimacy of tubular fuel cells in commercial applications. When combined with the technology already available at WATT, the larger tubular cell format developed by PEEI will substantially widen the scope of addressable markets.”
“With the merging of PEEI and WATT, we are excited to see our technology able to be scaled to commercial deployment in the marketplace,” said Owen Taylor, president of PEEI. “WATT has developed a cutting-edge manufacturing process that can also be applied to PEEI’s larger-scale tubular technology, making it accessible and affordable in a way that was not previously possible.”
According to Finnerty, PEEI’s more than 37,000 hours of technology testing, combined with in excess of 23,000 hours of testing on WATT’s balance-of-plant (BoP) technology, facilitates the company’s strong position as it transitions to larger systems, which will be designed for applications including residential power and smaller-scale distributed generation. WATT additionally remains a leader in development and use of SOFCs that operate on readily available energy sources, such as propane, natural gas, and various other liquid and renewable fuels.