Phil Whalen joined Ceres Power in July 2009, having been Chief Technology Officer of Invensys Plc and previously Director of Technology Strategy at Honeywell International Inc.

Phil is responsible for fuel cell technology development, advanced engineering, and control systems. He has more than 20 years’ experience of developing and leading global technology teams across a variety of technologies, including engineered ceramics and control systems. He has extensive experience in developing and commercializing new technologies across a wide range of international markets.

Phil is an American citizen, and has a PhD in ceramic science and engineering from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

‘I am delighted to welcome Phil to our Board,’ says Brian Count, Chairman of Ceres Power. ‘His strong background in leading and developing technology teams, and bringing new technology products to market, will prove invaluable as Ceres Power progresses towards the mass market launch of our domestic CHP [combined heat and power] product.’

Ceres Power is developing an innovative intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) which operates at 500–600°C, rather than the 800–1000°C of conventional SOFCs. This allows the use of less expensive materials and overcomes many of the problems with thermal stresses in the fuel cell stack.

Ceres is using its SOFC technology in a residential CHP fuel cell product running on natural gas. The integrated, wall-mountable fuel cell system can generate most of the electricity for a typical home, and all of the hot water and central heating.