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Painesville, Ohio, Company Produces Fuel Cells for Army Research

Posted on: Sunday, 4 December 2005, 18:00 CST

By Mark Koestner, The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio

Dec. 2--An Army contract, some innovative minds and an ambitious project have thrust Painesville onto the edge of the Third Frontier.

Imax Industries Inc., 466 W. Jackson St., is producing fuel cells for the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center. The $750,000 contract calls for 120 fuel cells, believed to be the largest mass production of cells in the country.

Fuel cells are devices that convert hydrogen and oxygen from the air into electrical power via a chemical reaction across a thin fluorocarbon membrane.

The Army contract calls for what are essentially small batteries that power what the military calls "fuzes" for artillery rounds. Fuzes contain the technology that determines when a fired round detonates.

The small, cylinder-shaped fuel cells currently in production are a prototype of sorts. The Army is looking for a supplier to mass produce a larger version that would be used to make steerable artillery shells, said David Pristash, president of Pemery Corp., the company formed to fill the Army order.

"It would end up being a derivation of this design," said Pristash of the larger battery for which Pemery hopes to land the contract. "It would take a lot of the elements of it and just change it around to come up with a different configuration. If we were able to get that contract, which we think we can, then that would lead to some very, very large volumes -- possibly as many as 400 or 500 jobs being created."

Pemery has applied for a Third Frontier grant from the Ohio Department of Development that could help the company put the fuel cells in the military's hands for testing next year.

Should the company land the contract for the larger cells -- with 12-watt power rather than the 2-watt output of the first 120 -- it projects sales of nearly $40 million by 2008 and $65 million by 2009.

Pristash designed the electricity-producing cells, called the P100, after talking to Norma Byron, president of Virginia-based The Ashlawn Group LLC.

The Ashlawn Group, the only woman-owned defense contractor in the ammunition business, is the company that was awarded the Army contract.

Ashlawn partnered with Pristash after company officials became convinced they could mass produce fuel cells. They filed five U.S. patent applications and have one pending, then convinced the Pentagon they could mass produce the cells.

"Typically, in the fuel-cell industry, the largest application to date has been backup power," Byron said. "They're crafted in almost a laboratory environment. For instance, the largest makers, over their 10-plus year history, they brag about making 500. So nobody has ever tried to fabricate these on an automated basis before."

The Army is hoping to convert much of its current arsenal of artillery ammunition to the steerable variety, Byron said. Because it stores its ammunition for years, the 20-year shelf life of Pemery's fuel cells appeals to the Army, she said.

Imax Industries, a metal fabrication business, became involved when Pristash approached Imax president Mike Miller about the project. The two had worked together before, and Pristash knew of Imax's penchant for building things other companies wouldn't.

"Where the synergy comes with us is we do very unique projects -- that we never know what we're going to be doing next," Miller said. "We put things together and find a way to make them work."

Imax machines and welds the stainless-steel casings for fuel cells, the components of which are purchased from other Ohio companies, except for a cell membrane made in Georgia by W.L. Gore & Associates.

The future of fuel cells will be continued attempts to manufacture a cost-effective power source with enough juice to power a car, Pristash said.

The mass production on this scale might be a small step in that direction.

It is a great step for Painesville and Lake County, said U.S. Rep. Steven C.

LaTourette, R-Concord Township.

"I think it's a huge deal any time you can attract a high-profile company," LaTourette said. "I think it's really exciting that they picked Painesville.

It's going to mean good-paying jobs, and it puts the area in better position to compete in the next number of years.

"Anybody that's watching what's going on with gas prices and energy costs knows the future is going to be fuel cells; it's going to be hydrogen."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio

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Source: The News-Herald

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