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JANE RITIKOS reports.
VERY soon this year, more than 200 vehicles will ply the routes in Cyberjaya and Putrajaya – powered by metal fuel. Costing US$3mil (RM11.4mil), it will run for nine months and during that time certain people and companies will be selected to drive the vehicles in the vicinity.
The eVjaya project by InventQJaya Sdn Bhd (IQJ) will be a field test
of a metal fuel cell technology using nickel-zinc batteries the company
had developed in Malaysia. It would be tested on 150 scooters, 50 motorbikes,
20 cars and two buses. 
“We want to get customer feedback on the effectiveness of the technology, including when the vehicle breaks down and when it is abused,” said IQJ chief executive officer Dr Sadeq Mustafa Faris at the Middle East Electricity Exhibition and Conference 2004 at the Dubai World Trade Centre recently.
He said the vehicles would debunk the whole conventional transportation system and place Malaysia as leader in the clean electric car business.
“Metal fuel cell is the future and will replace petrol as a cheaper, more efficient fuel source,” he said.
He added that after one or two years after the product had been launched, Malaysia would be known for her electric vehicles.
Unlike the polluting fossil fuel, metal fuel cell oxidised metal to generate electricity, said Dr Sadeq.
He was born in Libya and graduated in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley before joining IBM.
He explained that fuel cells were mini “power plants” that could be used at home to power domestic appliances like refrigerators and microwave oven. It allows people to disconnect their homes from the power grid.
A miniature version can run a cell phone or laptop and when magnified it can run a power plant.
One device takes oxygen from the air and converts it into ions, which is transported through IQJ’s patented Hydroxide Conducting Membrane Technology or Membrion which took eight years to develop.
Dr Sadeq inserted an aluminium foil into the membrane and placed clips on both the foil and membrane. The foil got 11 micro motors running.
“This is metal fuel cell,” he said, “The demand for fuel is tremendous and people are turning to liquefied natural gas. Imagine if you transfer that to metal fuel.”
Dr Sadeq said metal stored a lot of chemical energy that could be harnessed to become electrical energy but this had been largely ignored. Instead, as much as US$10bil (RM38bil) was being invested in hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles, he said.
“Hydrogen fuel is not environment-friendly, flammable and not easy to source.
“Metal fuel batteries can be refuelled in 10 seconds, are cheaper than petrol by a power of ten, non-flammable and provides higher power and higher energy,’ he said.
Comparing a regular generator and a metal fuel generator, he said a regular one was bulky and noisy.
It also uses stored chemical energy, which is turned into thermal energy and then into mechanical energy before it is finally turned into electrical energy. At each stage, a certain amount of energy is lost.
“With a metal fuel generator, chemical energy is directly turned into electrical energy, thus minimising energy loss,” he said, adding that this generator was noiseless, smaller, without pollution and costs about 10sen per kilowatt per hour of usage.
Last year IQJ, a joint venture between Reveo Inc of New York and the Malaysian Government, broke the distance record for modified production car powered by refuelable metal fuel generators.
In the test run of the hybrid vehicle, named MeVictory, it went over 516km. The generator was used for the first time to charge nickel-zinc batteries, featuring the membrane technology. The batteries in turn drive the motor to move the electric vehicle.
The same vehicle broke a Guinness World Record of 344.67km.
IQJ will use this new technology for car rental business. “For the first phase we will target tourists who are willing to pay for clean transportation,” said Dr Sadeq.
IQJ’s inventions of metal fuel cell include aluminium-air fuel cell for military and remote locations use, and magnesium-air fuel cell for coastal applications, shipping industry, offshore oilrigs and rural electrification.
However, Dr Sadeq acknowledged that people would only accept the new technology if it solved their problem.
“Why buy a new car with metal fuel unless it is cheaper and reliable? We expect the technology to be marketed in two years,” he said.
Dr Sadeq said it had taken the company US$80mil (RM304mil) to come to the level it was at now, adding that metal fuel was just one of its inventions.
As R & D as well as marketing needed huge funding, he said his company had designed a way to get positive cash flow of US$300mil (RM1.14bil) – and this includes US$42mil (RM159.6mil) from a utility company in New York – to sustain its activities.
With several awards under his belt, Dr Sadeq founded Reveo Inc in 1991 with a business model called “InventQbating for InventQbation”, which emphasised on nurturing and incubating new inventions to spin out built-to-last companies.
During a visit to its New York laboratories former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he was impressed with the business model.
“He saw that it was consistent with his science and technology-based Vision 2020 and invited Reveo to establish operations in Cyberjaya,” said Dr Sadeq.
Dr Mahathir launched IQJ on Oct 11 last year when he inaugurated the 28,000sq m state-of-the-art laboratory.
Dr Sadeq said he had met Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi three times and the current premier was very excited about IQJ’s work.
“In fact, we expect to get a lot more support from the Malaysian Government,” said Dr Sadeq.
