Excellence in Fuel Cells 2003
Pre-Conference Workshops
Wednesday April 9
Wednesday April 9 will be dedicated to the following interactive workshop sessions:
Micro Fuel Cell Technology – The tremendous growth in unit sales of portable electronic devices and the ever increasing burden on battery life as applications become even more complex is giving leading electronic manufacturers sleepless nights. And as power down options alone won’t solve the problem – scaling down fuel cell technology to meet portable power requirements is crucial.
This workshop will provide an evaluation of the current state of DMFC (Direct Methanol) Technology. The regulatory requirements, technical challenges including methanol crossover and miniaturisation of existing technology, routes to market, comparisons with Li-ion batteries, fuel storage technology and alternative technologies.
Cost reduction strategies – With cost projections suggesting that that mass markets will only support a capital cost of $1000 per kW hour for stationary applications and $100 per kW hour for automotive applications; cost reduction is vital.
The suggestion that economies of scale will solve this problem is probably too simplistic. This workshop will explore how all agents in the value chain can work together to achieve results and examine various manufacturing and business strategies that have already been successfully employed in the fuel cell and other emerging industries.
Planning and Developing Winning Fuel Cell strategies for Future Markets – Given that a thriving fuel cell market may not exist for up to ten years may companies may fail, not because they innovative technologies, but because they lack operating discipline and a proper attack plan for future markets.
This workshop will address critical areas including market segmentation, translating "voice of the consumer" into system requirements, and the development of product platform strategies and technology roadmaps. Executives and managers will learn how to develop winning fuel cell products for future markets, by understanding how to:
