As he files away some newly traded business cards, David Cade can barely keep up. Having just arrived from a renewable energy conference sponsored by the state in Philadelphia and speaking in front of Governor Ed Rendell, Cade is at it again, sitting down to talk about his company, AlumiFuel Power, Inc., and how it can help companies generate hydrogen onsite for small-scale applications.
“We’re below the radar screen,” says Cade, who moved the company to Philadelphia (a “hydrogen hub” according to Cade) from Seattle in 2008, a year after taking over as president, and resides at the University City Science Center. “When the public realized we weren’t going to be driving hydrogen-fueled cars six years ago, they kind of forgot about it.”
“It” is hydrogen power, which Cade points out is clean, green, non-toxic and emission-less. AlumiFuel is focused on generating hydrogen gas and steam for multiple niche applications. Its groundbreaking technology is based on the exothermic chemical reaction of aluminum powder and water. The powder winds up in commercial available cans that are fed into reactors with water to generate a reaction–enough to get 1,000 liters of hydrogen into a weather balloon in 20 minutes. Hydrogen is typically purchased in 150-pound cylinders, but AlumiFuel can replace that with an 18-cubic inch reactor and cartridges-just add water.
Fortunately for Cade, he has been able to spread the word enough to enlist some pretty impressive partners, like Kaymont Consolidated. The Long Island, N.Y., company is the world’s largest distributor of weather balloons, a $100 million market. AlumiFuel is also working to generate steam for underwater propulsion and feed fuel cells and turbines for backup, auxiliary or remote power.
Cade says the company’s relationship with the Drexel University Nanotechnology Consortium has been critical to its success, providing access to high-powered electron microscopes and other invaluable nanoscale functions.
Source: David Cade, AlumiFuel Power, Inc.
Writer: Joe Petrucci