Acta Nano-Tech January 29, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing, Little Green Portfolio , trackbackAnalysing these fuel-cell related companies is proving to be harder than expected. For one thing, its a fairly technical area so I’ve been having to read quite widely to understand what they’re talking about. The book Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Emerging Technologies and Applications (Sustainable World)
The first of the companies I identified as a possible investment in a posting a couple of weeks ago, Acta Nanotech SpA is an Italian company based in Pisa and specialising in the development of catalysts which aid reactions within the fuel cells. One of the stumbling blocks to cheaper fuel cells is that the most effective catalyst available today is platinum, which is rare and expensive. Acta have just gained a European patent for their ‘Hypermec’ catalyst, which uses base metals rather than platinum. It can also be used with ethanol or ethylene glycol as the fuel, widening the range of uses of the fuel cell.
All this sounds like a good idea, and an interesting one to watch, but it is, as the Investors Chronicle said in their 22 December 2006 edition, ‘too speculative to call’. The companies fortunes rest entirely on this technology, and there is a lot of work taking place in this area. For instance, in a rather earlier stage of development, a recent report in Science suggests that a platinum-nickel alloy may be 90 times more effective than current platinum-carbon alloys.
From a commercial and financial point of view, the company’s long term relationship with Sumitomo Corp suggests at least that someone else has faith in them. At the time of their last interim report, six months ago, they had two years cash cover, so will need to go for further funding fairly soon I suspect.
I rather like the fact that Toby Woolrych, their Chief Operating Officer, will shortly be speaking at a conference on how AIM companies can differentiate themselves by better governance, which at least demonstrates an interest in such matters.
While I can see the potential of technology which enables ethanol-based fuel cells, using fuel that is easier to produce and store than hydrogen or methanol, this stock is too speculative for me. I’ll keep it on the watchlist, and observe with interest.
Technorati Tags: Acta SpA, fuel cells
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[...] so will be fairly speculative. It may be that buying smaller holdings in these three (and perhaps Acta, which is no more speculative than the others) is a better bet. A little more research is needed, [...]