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 06 03 08 | St. Louis Post-Dispatch article by Jeffrey Tomich Akermin biofuel cell keeps going, and going ... With apologies to Energizer's drum-pounding pink bunny, a new symbol of long-lasting energy is being deployed by another St. Louis-area company. The company Akermin Inc. developed a lab-scale biofuel cell that has generated power continuously for 3½ years. And it's still going. "Every day we add 24 hours to that, and we've seen no decay in performance," Nick Akers, a company co-founder said during an interview at the company's Nidus Center offices in Creve Coeur. Akermin's fuel cell uses living enzymes to trigger a chemical reaction that produces electricity. The concept isn't new, but such fuel cells so far have been confined to laboratories because the enzymes break down after just a few hours and aren't practical for commercial applications. What makes Akermin's technology different is a polymer membrane that's used to fix the enzymes to the surface of electrodes, making them less prone to heat and acidity, and longer lasting, Akers said. A prototype is being tested by a potential customer. The company is in talks with at least two other possible customers, said Richard Zvosec, vice president of business development. Making the leap from prototype to commercial product isn't an easy one. But Akermin could see its first sales as soon as mid-2009, Zvosec said. The prototype, available since April, is about half the size of a BlackBerry and runs on methanol. The size of fuel cells available to customers ultimately will be decided by its use and desired run time. A longer-lasting fuel cell will be larger because it will require more fuel, Akers said. For now, Akermin is targeting the wireless sensor and military markets where customers are seeking a low-wattage, long-lasting energy source for unattended devices. Specific uses may include border security, asset tracking, industrial monitoring, and gas metering. The company says its fuel cells will last two to four times longer than the high-performance lithium batteries now being used. "If you think about where a lot of wireless sensor networks are deployed, it's areas where you don't want to have to send personnel in on a regular basis to change batteries," Akers said. "If we can offer an extended run time, it's a value." Akermin raised almost $5 million last year from venture capitalists and other private investors, including Prolog Ventures of Clayton; OnPoint Technologies, a venture capital arm of the Army focused on developing energy sources for the military and commercial markets; Chrysalix Energy, a Canadian investor in companies with environmentally friendly power technology; and St. Louis Arch Angels. The company anticipates closing another round of funding by the end of the year, Zvosec said. Akermin also is seeking other markets for its enzyme technology, such as food processing, biofuels, and environmental remediation. "Were looking at those," Zvosec said. "In addition, we're having conversations with chemical companies because a lot of chemical processes are less than environmentally friendly." Despite the allure of a laptop battery that can run for years on a single charge, the company has no immediate plans to target the consumer segment with its fuel cell. In other words, you won't use it to run your cell phone or laptop, and you won't find it on the shelf at Best Buy. "I think there certainly is potential for the benefits of our technology to be applied to the consumer market," Akers said. "Right now, the near-term opportunities for us seem to be in the industrial space." Published in the Business section of the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Tuesday, June 3, 2008.
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