Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD Ovonics) (Nasdaq: ENER) announced that its subsidiary, Ovonic Battery Company, Inc., has been awarded a $900,000 contract by Xcel Energy, Inc. to develop its Ovonic proprietary Biofuel Reformation technology. The two-year, cost-shared technology development contract will support Ovonic Battery’s research and development of a new process for reforming renewable fuels, such as bioethanol and biomethanol, to produce hydrogen for the production of clean energy.
In this fundamentally new approach patented by ECD Ovonics, the temperature of reforming biofuels into hydrogen gas has been dramatically reduced. The reforming process can thereby become potentially simpler and cheaper, both in operating cost and capital investment. The program will transfer this process from research to pilot level, examining the commercialization feasibility from both a technical and an economic perspective.