Powerhouse Enrgy Grp Full Year Business Update

 
TIDMPHE 
 
9 January 2018 
 
                          PowerHouse Energy Group plc 
                        ("PowerHouse" or the "Company") 
 
                           Full Year Business Update 
 
PowerHouse Energy Group plc (AIM: PHE), the UK technology company pioneering 
hydrogen production from waste plastic and used tyres, is pleased to provide 
the following update on the Company's progress during the financial year ended 
31 December 2017. 
 
Major progress has been made in the process of seeking the commercialisation of 
the Company's core technology, the PowerHouse G3-UHt Distributed Modular 
Gasification (DMG®) system. This low-cost system has been developed 
specifically to convert almost all types of waste plastic into a synthesis gas 
("syngas") delivering a high proportion of hydrogen of road fuel quality for 
use in fuel cell cars, trucks and buses. 
 
PowerHouse's distributed model and use of waste plastic and used tyres as 
feedstock means that, for the first time, hydrogen can be sold as a road fuel 
at or near the point of production and at a cost competitive with current 
hydrocarbon fuels. This underlines the ground-breaking potential of 
PowerHouse's technology as to date the production and delivery costs of 
hydrogen have prohibited its widespread use as a road fuel. 
 
The DMG® system continues to generate significant interest from both domestic 
and international partners, in part reflecting the urgency of finding a 
solution for the worldwide problem of waste plastic pollution. Growing media 
attention, such as the Sky Ocean Rescue campaign and the BBC's Blue Planet II, 
has heightened interest in this issue. 
 
The attractions of the DMG® system are further reinforced by China's recent 
decision to ban the import of waste plastic from the UK and other countries. 
The UK alone will be forced to find new ways to deal with approximately 500,000 
tonnes of plastic previously shipped to China each year. 
 
Progress achieved during the year to 31 December 2017 includes: 
 
  * Board strengthened in October 2017 by the appointment of Dr Cameron Davies 
    as Non-Executive Chairman, founder and former CEO of Alkane Energy plc with 
    a PhD in Applied Geochemistry from Imperial College London and more than 20 
    years' experience in power generation and the energy industry 
 
  * The commissioning at the University of Chester's Thornton Science Park of 
    the prototype G3-UHt unit and the successful demonstration of its 
    ultra-high temperature production of syngas from waste tyres 
 
  * An extended trial of the G3-UHt unit showed that the production of syngas 
    could be controlled to produce more than 50 per cent hydrogen by volume 
    with independent analysis by Linde BOC confirming the syngas could be 
    purified to road-fuel-quality hydrogen 
 
  * Memorandum of Understanding signed to explore the possibility of 
    establishing a DMG® network in Qatar for the conversion of waste to 
    hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles 
 
  * Completion of pre-Front-end Engineering and Design (pre-FEED) stage in the 
    engineering design of a 25 tonne-per-day commercial DMG® system 
 
  * The signing of heads of terms with Peel Environmental Ltd ("Peel") for the 
    first site for a commercial DMG® unit. The Peel site, in Cheshire, benefits 
    from access to the national gas and electricity grids and has excellent 
    transport links 
 
The milestones achieved in 2017 position the Company for further progress 
during the current year and beyond. 
 
Key priorities and targets for the year ahead include: 
 
  * Continuing design work of the first commercial DMG® system - currently in 
    the Basic Engineering Program and Front-end Design and Engineering (FEED) 
    stage in which component suppliers will be selected and design schema 
    optimised 
 
  * Building, commissioning and full-scale operation of the first commercial 
    DMG® 
 
  * Working with Peel in advancing the planning and other permissions for the 
    first Cheshire site, as agreed under heads of terms in December 2017, and 
    in progressing site engineering works 
 
  * Signing agreements on the feedstock for the commercial G3-UHt system and on 
    the ultimate use of the syngas 
 
  * Creating a plan for the further development of the Cheshire site, with the 
    ultimate target of having the capacity to produce more than 2MW of 
    electricity and 3 tonnes of high-quality hydrogen per day 
 
  *  Continuing to explore worldwide partnering and licensing opportunities for 
    the DMG® system, including the possibility of DMG® networks in Qatar, East 
    Asia, continental Europe and the USA. 
 
  * Seeking and agreeing strategic alliances, and pursuing other initiatives, 
    in transport-related fuel cell applications 
 
Keith Allaun, CEO of Powerhouse Energy, commented: 
 
"The year to 31 December 2017 has been a year during which PowerHouse Energy 
took major strides towards achieving its objective of commercialising its 
proprietary and highly efficient technology to convert plastic and other waste 
into syngas for hydrogen production. We have been a pioneer in the distributed 
hydrogen-from-waste-plastic market in the UK and we are targeting early 
adoption of our technology. 
 
"From a financial perspective, we eliminated a significant hurdle to our growth 
by reaching agreement to retire the convertible note with Hillgrove Investments 
Pty Ltd through the payment of GBP2 million in cash and the issuance of GBP1.4 
million in equity; the note was accruing nearly GBP500,000 in interest per annum. 
 
"We enter the new year focused on delivering the commercialisation of our DMG® 
technology during 2018, and we remain confident that hydrogen from waste 
plastic will emerge as a preferred fuel for road transport." 
 
For more information, contact: 
 
PowerHouse Energy Group plc                    Tel: [phone] 
Keith Allaun, Chief Executive Officer 
 
WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser)         Tel: [phone] 
James Joyce / Alex Bond 
 
Turner Pope Investments Ltd (Broker)           Tel: [phone] 
Ben Turner / James Pope 
 
Buchanan (Media enquiries)                     Tel: [phone] 
Mark Court / Chris Lane 
 
About PowerHouse Energy 
 
PowerHouse Energy Group plc is the developer of the G3-UHt Ultra High 
Temperature Gasification unit, and the creator of DMG®, the Distributed Modular 
Gasification System that allows the distributed eradication of waste, the 
generation of distributed electricity, and the production of distributed 
hydrogen with the world's first hydrogen from waste (HfW) process. 
 
The Company is focused on technologies to enable projects for energy recovery 
from municipal and industrial waste streams that would otherwise be directed to 
landfills and incinerators; or from renewable and alternative fuels such as 
biomass, tyres, and plastics to create synthesis gas (syngas) for power 
generation, or high-quality hydrogen as a fuel for transport. DMG® allows for 
easy, economical, deployment and scaling of an environmentally sound solution 
to the growing challenges of waste eradication, landfill diversion, electrical 
demand, and distributed hydrogen production. 
 
PowerHouse is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM Market and is 
incorporated in the United Kingdom. 
 
For more information see www.powerhouseenenergy.net 
 
 
 
END 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 09, 2018 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)