Cmr Fuel Cells Share Discussion Threads

[eddiegoldstein] 25/5/2006 12:55

great find! can you put it in the header?

[jonwig] 25/5/2006 12:08

This is actually old stuff (1 year +) but just came in with my Google News Alerts.
A good summary of what CMF are doing.

[millsig] 09/5/2006 23:45

anyone else waiting...?

[shavian] 26/4/2006 13:53

Nice jump in the share price on some smallish buys concentrated between 11:00 and 12:00 this morning...news leaking?

[shavian] 20/4/2006 14:12

Thanks Jon, interesting stuff.

[jonwig] 20/4/2006 11:55

Sharecast has a good summary of today's collaboration agreement:

LONDON (SHARECAST) - AIM listed CMR Fuel Cells soared this morning after the firm entered into a non-exclusive joint development collaboration with European chemicals group Solvay.

Solvay New Business Development division will work to produce high performance porous membranes for use in CMR's high power density 'compact mixed-reactant' fuel cell stacks.

The collaboration will work to develop porous electrolyte membranes that eliminate the requirement for bulky, inactive components found in traditional fuel cells such as flow field plates and other balance of plant components, said the group.

The use of porous membranes is a world first for the fuel cell industry and is protected by CMR's core intellectual property, it added.

CMR technology massively reduces the size of fuel cell stacks - leaving more room for fuel and enabling dramatically longer run times in portable power systems.

[shavian] 20/4/2006 09:19

spkirk: Going back to your post #81 of 5 April (only just read it having been on holiday) I'd say that CMR should not be compared with Ceramic (CFU). CMR is more a competitor of ITM, whereas CFU is developing in the same combined heat/power field as Ceres (CWR). This Solvay deal is interesting (thanks, Jonwig) as it puts a major industrial player into competition with some of the smaller AIM-quoted experimental specialists such as ACTA and to a lesser extent PFW who are into the "nuts and bolts" end of the fuel-cell business developing membranes and catalysts. There seems to be increasing overlap between these activities, with ITM scoring brilliantly yesterday in the membrane field, whereas I'd understood that they were concentrating on stack architecture like CMR. It's getting a bit hard for a numpty like me to keep up!

[jonwig] 20/4/2006 08:20

B L T: you are trying too hard.

[jonwig] 20/4/2006 07:40

This is the right stuff: the prospectus was full of indications that they would seek development partners, now it's happening.
They are too small to do this themselves:

CMR is pleased to announce that it has entered into a non-exclusive joint
development collaboration with European chemicals major player, Solvay SA
(`Solvay'). As a result Solvay New Business Development division will work to
produce high performance porous membranes for use in CMR's unique high power
density 'compact mixed-reactant' fuel cell stacks. Solvay SA is an
International Pharmaceutical and Chemicals Group listed on the Euronext Stock
Exchange and has annual sales of over €8.6billion, employs 30,000 people in 50
countries and has spent in excess of €1.4billion on Research and Development in
the past two years.

Full RNS:

[jonwig] 07/4/2006 09:31

Investors Chronicle, 10 March at 222p (I overlooked it)

The fuel cell was invented in 1839, but it is only in the past 18 months that its potential for generating clean power has started to be developed seriously - bringing a slew of companies such as CMR to the market for funds.

And CMR's losses grew, although this is to be expected in an early-stage company ramping up development spending. Chief executive John Halfpenny believes CMR's unique technology, which means its fuel cell stacks are smaller and cheaper to make, is ideal for the consumer electronics industry. So it is working with both manufacturers and battery makers to commercialise the technology, with 2008 looking like the most realistic target for mass production. Mr Halfpenny expects CMR to produce the equivalent of 500W of power per litre by the end of 2006, which will take it closer to the goal of making fuel cells small enough for consumer electronics - and it has plenty of cash to fund this development.

CMR appears to have strong technology and its board is highly experienced. Its shares may drift until milestones are achieved, though. Fairly priced.

The kind of volatility we're seeing today will be typical until the picture is clearer.
They do suggest 2008 for mass production (sooner than I'd thought).

[spkirk] 06/4/2006 16:35

Thanks jonwig, I'll try and track one down. The info is much appreciated

[jonwig] 06/4/2006 15:57

spkirk,
timescale isn't mentioned by the company, but there's a lot of work to do in improving design, efficiency, cost, etc.

On your later mail, compactness means greater output per volume and per mass of the stack. It's already fairly comparable with Li batteries, I believe (need to check).

You really need a copy of the Admissions Prospectus which covers all these aspects. I got mine from their PR firm, Andy Tan at Hansard. He was very helpful:

[e-mail]

[spkirk] 06/4/2006 15:28

Also, another thought. If they're only producing very compact fuel cells for phones / laptops then there can't be very much of a 'green' benefit with this technology. Unlike larger scale fuel cell production I would have thought that this tech will be taken on only if it's considerably more efficient than standard lithium batteries etc. and not otherwise.

Is this the case or am I missing the 'green' element here?

Thanks?

[spkirk] 05/4/2006 23:13

Jonwig, thanks for the info, I was about to make a purchase of Ceramic then caught a glimpse of CMR. The two companies could provide a nice broad exposure to the potential benefits of this industry.

Given the markets that CMR are aiming at, my thoughts would be that CMR is pretty much an all or nothing stock. 1) As you said it depends whether or not they get the technolgy sorted 2) It's the kind of industry where you either sign a very big contract or you sign no contract. That is, you're not likely to get your technology in to just 100,000 phones/laptops. Either you sign a big deal with a mobile phone manufacturer (eg. Motorolla, Nokia, Ericsson, HP etc.) and your technology is in millions of phones/laptops or you don't, and it's in none. If you do it's the big bucks, if you don't then you have no revenues.

Is there any indication of how likely it is that CMR will be able to produce a final product that may attract a big deal? / any thoughts on the timescale?

My initial thought would be to make a purchase of Ceramic (as revenues depend on sigining more but lower value deals) and watch how the tech comes along with CMR and maybe buy in later. Obviously one deal with Motorolla, Nokia, HP etc get's CMR's technology in millions of devices and sends the share price up 200-300%. Could be a few years off though.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[jonwig] 05/4/2006 19:15

spkirk - not the same technology.

CFU are involved in SOFC fuel cells (for boilers, plant, etc.) - big, robust stuff. Similar to CWR.

CMF are in DMFCs, and mixed-reactant FCs is their special point.
These are planned for laptops, mobile phones, etc.
If they get the technology sorted, they will be very small and have superb power density.
If not, kiss your £££ goodbye!

If you want to bone up on the technology, this is good:

[stegrego] 05/4/2006 19:14

CFU is for boilers and CMR is for laptops / phones etc - very different markets....

[spkirk] 05/4/2006 19:09

Does anyone know if there's much of a comparison between CMR Fuel Cells and Ceramic Fuel Cells? Both recently listed, both seem to be doing the same sort of thing however CMR has a market cap of £47m against Ceramics market cap of almost £95m.

I haven't invested in either yet and was considering investing in Ceramic fuel cells, however if it's possible to buy the same prospects for half the price then CMR might be the best bet. Any thoughts?

[jonwig] 31/3/2006 10:04

from The Independent this morning:

Produces a fuel cell that it reckons is 10 times smaller than a conventional unit and at a fifth of the usual cost. The idea is that the fuel cell is made small enough to power electronic devices such as laptops. It is trying to produce a fuel cell that would power a laptop for more than 24 hours.

Other fuel cell companies covered, too:



The situation regarding this company is more than usually complex.
If they succeed in reducing their current problems with mixed reactant DMFCs and improve power/weight and /volume output as much as they say they can and manage to reduce catalyst costs then they will be a world-beater.
But the risks are tremendously high.
I bought into this as I can't resist a challenge, but anyone considering it needs to be fully aware of the risks attached ...

[jonwig] 27/3/2006 07:42

They seem to be delighted about this:

CMR Fuel Cells plc, is pleased to announce that one of its core patents has been granted in China.

Link in header for full RNS.

[asparks] 23/3/2006 10:39

ITM is set to become
"a 21st century energy giant along the lines of BP or Shell" according to today's Shares Mag. Year end target set at 400p