Hydrogen firm taps hot market

Kraus announces new S.Korea contract

Kraus Global Inc. has established a foothold in a potentially important new market for its hydrogen-dispensing technology.

The Winnipeg-based alternative-fuels specialist announced yesterday it has landed a new contract to supply a hydrogen dispenser to a South Korean energy firm - EnE Corporation of Seol. A spokesman for the company declined to disclose the dollar value of the new contract.

"The number isn't important," Chris Damiani, Kraus's business and product development manager, said in an interview yesterday. "It is the fact that it's a new market (for the company's hydrogen-dispensing technology). We're certainly hopeful it will lead to other opportunities for us in that market."

Damiani said EnE Corporation, which manufactures petroleum and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG dispensers, has received a Korean government grant to also develop hydrogen-dispensing technologies over the next two years. The dispenser it has purchased from Kraus will be installed in Korea's first hydrogen refueling station, and Damiani said Kraus officials are hoping it will be the first of several EnE will be purchasing over the next few years.

In addition to its hydrogen-dispensing technology, EnE has also expressed an interest in acquiring some of Kraus's compressed natural gas (CNG) dispensing technology, Damiani added. He noted Kraus currently has 16 of its CNG compressor packages operating in Korea and EnE could become another key customer for that technology, as well. He said one of the nice things about having one of its hydrogen dispensers installed in Korea's first hydrogen fuel station is that it should help boost Kraus's profile in the Asian country's burgeoning alternative fuels market.

"Any time a company has a positive experience in a new market... word of mouth gets around and it helps to drive sales in that market," he noted.

He said Asia, Europe and the United States are the three biggest markets for Kraus's hydrogen-refueling equipment, which the company has been manufacturing since 1996. For its CNG refueling equipment, it's Asia, Europe and South America.

The company has some if its first-generation hydrogen dispensers operating in Germany and the United States, but none of the second-generation dispensers like the one that's going to Korea. However, the company hopes to have one of its second-generation dispensers operating in the United States by early next year, he added.

Developing export markets is vital to Kraus's success because three-quarters of its annual sales come from outside Canada.

Although the bulk of its sales are outside Canada, Damiani noted Kraus was recently involved in a hydrogen-bus demonstration in Winnipeg that tested the cold-weather durability of a bus powered by a hydrogen internal-combustion engine owned by Sun Line Transit Agency of California. The company provided the hydrogen dispenser used to refuel the bus during the test period, and also trained the Red River College students and staff who performed the refuelling. It's also working with the provincial government to supply a hydrogen dispenser for a fuel-cell bus demonstration tentatively slated for this fall.

Originally founded in 1962, Kraus Global Inc. today is an innovative solutions provider of transportation refueling equipment and components in the alternative fuel and petroleum industries. Kraus is a recognized leader in the alternative fuels industry providing refueling equipment for compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed hydrogen (H2) fuels.