30-Apr-2012

ACAL Energy Creates Senior Commercial Post

Accelerating interest in affordable fuel cell systems has seen ACAL Energy appoint a Vice President of Commercial Development to lead strategic partner acquisition for its FlowCath® liquid cathode fuel cell technology. Mr Brendan Bilton has a strong track record in the sector, having been involved in fuel cell technology since 2000.

Mr Bilton was previously CEO of Ceramic Fuel Cells (Europe), and a Deputy Chairman of Fuel Cells UK. Immediately prior to joining ACAL Energy, he was a consultant to the energy industry, advising companies including E.ON on future low carbon strategies, particularly in micro-generation. In one brief, he was part of the team which successfully bid for a Fuel Cells & Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH-JU) mCHP Demonstration project worth €10 million over 3 years.

At ACAL Energy, he will be responsible for spearheading the firm’s commercial efforts worldwide as it responds to growing customer interest. In December, the company successfully commissioned its first field test system in a ‘real life’ application, and last month, in Japan, it showed a new, compact, low cost fuel cell stack design with a rated power of 12 kW and a power density of over 1 kW per litre, ideally suited to both automotive and stationery power generation applications.

“We are delighted to welcome Brendan to the team”, said Bob Pettigrew, Executive Chairman of ACAL Energy. “Brendan brings with him a solid knowledge of the forces impacting on the energy sector, and sees the opportunity we have before us to make a real impact with our innovative, low cost technology.”

Mr Bilton has a degree in metallurgy from the University of Manchester, and studied advanced carbon fibre composites at UMIST.