FuelCell Gets U.S. Funds to Advance Carbon-Capture Project

FuelCell Energy Inc. (FCEL), the Danbury, Connecticut-based maker of fuel-cell power plants, qualified for $800,000 in U.S. government funding to develop systems that capture carbon-dioxide emissions at coal-fired generators.

The funding is the second phase of a $3 million award from the U.S. Energy Department announced in October 2011, FuelCell said in a statement today. FuelCell is one of 16 companies that will share as much as $41.3 million in Energy Department funding over three years to develop carbon-capture technology.

About 42 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. last year came from burning coal, the largest source of carbon emissions that contribute to climate change, according to the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration.

“This award enables us to further advance and refine our research,” FuelCell Chief Executive Officer Arthur Bottone said in the statement.

FuelCell fell 5.2 percent to 95 cents at the close in New York.

The company’s direct fuel-cell stack separates and concentrates CO2 during power generation, according to the statement. The Energy Department is providing funding to companies developing post-combustion capture technologies, which use membranes, solvents or gas-absorbing sorbents to remove CO2 from smokestacks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Doom in New York at jdoom1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net