Bac2's ElectroPhen bipolar plates for PEM fuel cells.

Bac2, producer of the patent-pending ElectroPhen polymer, has raised GBP2 million (USD4.1 million) in private funds to market its key product.

The funding follows a GBP500,000 (USD1.0 million) seed investment in May 2006 and a GBP250,000 (USD516,449) grant from the UK Department of Trade & Industry in June 2005.

Bac2 CEO Mike Stannard says the company has made progress since then.

"The fact that we have been able to secure so much investment, mainly from private individuals, demonstrates the progress we have made since the company was set up in 2005."

He says ElectroPhen will be initially commercialised in the fuel cell market and then in other electrical and electronics applications.

ElectroPhen is an electrically conductive polymer used to create bipolar plates and end caps for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks.

A Bac2 spokesperson told Forkliftaction.com News the company will announce its first standard product soon and plans to use ElectroPhen in plastic and printed electronic components and circuits.

ElectroPhen plates need to be customised because each fuel cell design has unique plate requirements. However, the spokesperson says some customers want to tailor ElectroPhen bipolar plates to their specifications themselves.

"Bac2 will announce the availability of blank plates of ElectroPhen that can be machined by customers to meet their applications' needs."

Bac2 has four employees working at its offices and test laboratory in Southampton, UK, which opened in August. (Forkliftaction.com News #316).