Thursday, January 22, 2009

Hybrid Fuel Cell?

Since my presentation at the NHA conference is going to be on fuel cell hybrid configurations, mainly fuel cells with batteries and ultracaps, I've been particularly on the lookout for the key word hybrid along with 'fuel cells' and 'hydrogen' in my google alerts and searches. So a company I've been hit with a lot lately is 'Hydrogen Hybrid Fuel Cell Corp.' who is putting out more press releases than you can shake a platinum ingot at. It turns out the product of this public company is no more a fuel cell than the 'Medis Fuel Cell' battery charger (see this year's CES press releases) which is a stand alone disposable power pack (using fuel cell technology). Most important, the Hybrid Hydrogen product appears to be just another of many small electrolyzers that runs off a truck's battery, makes hydrogen and uses it to goose up the diesel mixture, given perhaps slightly better milage. But, after I did a minmal amount of due diligence on the company, a ran across its latest 10-k filing which the SEC requires and essentially lists all the disclaimers on said company. I don't know why these companies have to go out of their way to give fuel cells a bad name as the industry has enough of an inferiority complex to begin with.

An unconscionable article on CNNMoney simply quoted a HyHy press release treating it as if it were a huge reputable fuel cell developer. A couple quotes from the 10-k:
"The financial conditions evidenced by the accompanying financial statements raise substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.";
"As of September 30, 2008, we did not have any employees. We are dependent upon our sole officer and a director for our future business development" ; and
"For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, the company spent $983 in product development ".

And its not even a fuel cell company, RIP Voller Power.

Links:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/10-k-hydrogen-hybrid-technologies-inc/story.aspx?guid=%7B49B154F5-DDA3-459A-9120-D7D82DA3182F%7D&dist=msr_1.
The embarrassing CNN story: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0465887.htm