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VIASPACE CEO Reports Progress on Commercialization of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells Within the $55 Billion Clean Energy Sector
Thursday, May 15, 2008
PASADENA, Calif., May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VIASPACE Inc.
(OTC Bulletin Board: VSPC) CEO, Dr. Carl Kukkonen, reports that Sony unveiled
its previously secret direct methanol fuel cell at the recent Small Fuel Cells
2008 conference in Atlanta. In addition, Samsung publicly acknowledged its
cartridge partnership with VIASPACE subsidiary Direct Methanol Fuel Cell
Corporation (DMFCC) at the conference. IDG News Service reported on May 9,
2008 that, "Toshiba plans to begin mass production of direct methanol fuel
cells by March next year." These announcements demonstrate the progress in
commercialization of direct methanol fuel cells within the $55 Billion Clean
Energy Sector.
VIASPACE and DMFCC manufacture disposable fuel cartridges for portable
electronics applications, and fuel cell and battery test equipment. VIASPACE
also sells high-quality and safe rechargeable lithium-based batteries.
About 300 global technology leaders attended the three-day 10th annual
Small Fuel Cells conference which focused on small and portable fuel cells and
fuel cells hybridized with rechargeable batteries for commercial and military
applications. Attendees included representatives from large companies such as
Samsung, Sony, DuPont, Energizer, Motorola, Honeywell, Toshiba, 3M, as well as
many smaller companies and universities. Many technologies were discussed,
but the largest number of talks were on direct methanol fuel cells including
presentations by Sony, Samsung, DMFCC, Smart Fuel Cell, PolyFuel and Cabot.
Dr. Kukkonen comments on the conference, "In the session where I gave a
talk, Sony revealed that they had been working in secret for several years on
direct methanol fuel cells. They showed impressive data and said that their
commercial target was Sony hand-held portable electronics such as mobile
phones, digital cameras, game consoles and Walkmans. Sony revealed itself as
a player for the first time and captured a lot of attention. They emphasized
that their solution was a fuel cell hybridized with a small battery for
optimum performance. DMFCC fully agrees with this approach, and VIASPACE has
the batteries needed for hybridization."
"Samsung followed Sony on the program and reported on the results of their
extensive testing of direct methanol fuel cells and stacks under a wide range
of environmental and user conditions. The Samsung presentation showed that
they are at the later stages of development toward commercialization,
gathering data and statistics on performance, stability and reliability."
Kukkonen continued, "We were gratified that Samsung acknowledged its
partnership with DMFCC on fuel cartridges. DMFCC and its Japanese partner,
Sato Group, provided the cartridges to Samsung for their system testing. My
talk was on creating the global infrastructure for cartridge manufacturing and
distribution. I was pleased to be able to announce the April 30, 2008 ruling
by the US Department of Transportation allowing airline passengers and crew to
hand carry on methanol fuel cells and cartridges. This is an important
breakthrough for the industry."
On May 9, 2008 IDG News Service reported Toshiba's aggressive midterm
management plan to dramatically increase corporate profits. According to IDG,
"Thursday's announcement represents Toshiba's strongest commitment yet to
getting DMFCs out of the door. Toshiba has set aside a portion of its capital
expenditure to build a DMFC production line and products are now expected in
their current fiscal year, which is the period that ends in March 2009."
About VIASPACE: Originally founded in 1998 with the objective of
transforming proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the
Department of Defense into hardware and software solutions that solve today's
complex problems, VIASPACE benefits from important patent and software
licenses from Caltech, which manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For
more information, please visit our website at http://www.VIASPACE.com, or
contact for Investor Relations, Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of
Communications at 800-517-8050, or IR@VIASPACE.com.
This news release includes forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements relate to future events or our future performance
and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may
cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to
be materially different from any future results, levels of activity,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking
statements. Such factors include the risks outlined in our periodic filings
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report
on Form 10-KSB, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, as well as
general economic and business conditions, the ability to acquire and develop
specific projects and technologies, the ability to fund operations, changes in
consumer and business consumption habits, and other factors over which
VIASPACE has little or no control.
SOURCE VIASPACE Inc.
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