Powercell Sweden AB

Fuel cell makes electricity from hydrogen

Powercell Sweden AB develops and distributes advanced fuel cell systems for the transport industry and certain other high technology markets. The company, which has its roots in the Volvo group’s development project for fuel cells, aims to accelerate the launch of fuel cells on the market through development, production and sales.

Powercell Sweden was established in 2008 as a subsidiary of Volvo Technology Transfer, which is in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of AB Volvo. Fouriertransform became a co-owner of the company in October 2009 through an investment of SEK 60 million. The other owners are Midroc New Technology, which invests in cleantech and biomed enterprises, as well as OCAS, which is an advanced, market-driven research centre in Belgium.

The company is being built up, has a brand new facility in Gothenburg and employed around 60 people at the end of 2009. It aims to become Europe’s largest fuel cell plant, employing 100 people, within the next three years.

Brief product description

Powercell Sweden’s product is made up of two patented parts: a fuel converter (reformer) and a PEM-type fuel cell – the type that is most common in automotive applications.

The reformer produces hydrogen from biofuel such as ethanol, DME (dimethyl ether), biogas, methanol and biodiesel, but also from ordinary diesel or petrol. As a first step, therefore, hydrogen is produced from other fuels. In the next step, the fuel cell converts the hydrogen into electricity with no residual products other than water. Compared with ordinary petrol or diesel powered electrical units, Powercell’s product results in a significant reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and no emissions whatsoever of particulates, carbon monoxide or nitric oxides.

A further advantage of Powercell Sweden’s technology is that it has been designed for use with the existing infrastructure for fuels.