News

DuPont Forms a Fuel Cell Division

February 11, 2001 by Jeff Shepard

DuPont (Wilmington, DE) announced that it has formed a fuel cell unit to capture a piece of the growing market for clean-energy technology. Dupont stated that it expects this market to be worth $10 billion by the end of the decade. The formation of the DuPont fuel cell division provides a business platform from which to develop and commercialize technologies. Last year, DuPont opened a multimillion-dollar fuel cell technology center in Delaware that is focusing on materials technology and applications development. The company also is partnering with others in the industry to improve the capabilities, availability and economic feasibility of fuel cell technology.

DuPont reported that it will focus on the PEM fuel cells used in portable, stationary and transportation applications, and that it will at first supply materials, including its Nafion membranes, which have been used in fuel cells for space travel for more than 35 years, and engineering polymers. DuPont said it later plans to supply fuel cell system developers with other products, including PEM fuel cell stack components. DuPont also reported that the company is involved in the development of direct methanol fuel cell technology.

“Increasing global energy requirements and the desire for new, alternative energy sources in many markets make fuel cells an exciting new growth opportunity for DuPont," commented Richard J. Angiullo, vice president and general manager of DuPont Fluoroproducts. “Fuel cells are a natural fit for DuPont technology and capabilities," Angiullo said. “More than 50 percent of a PEM fuel cell stack, the real transactional center of a fuel cell, can be made from DuPont materials."