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Technology Stocks : Ballard Power -world leader zero-emission PEM fuel cells -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dr. Ezzat G. Bakhoum who wrote (2689)	6/3/1998 9:17:00 PM
From: Cascade Berry	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 5827

Dr. Bakhoum...I thought the claim of the company was for high "Proton Mobility" (conduction of H+?), that is hydrogen ions. Does this not make it a potential threat to membranes? Does this mean the "glass" is in fact not a silicon-based compound, according to your argument? Is there necessarily any intrinsic brittleness in such a glass which might preclude it from active duty in the "real <vibrating> world? How could the hydrogen be delivered to the active site of proton mobility, without inducing brittleness. I suppose there could be a way. Cheers.

To: Dr. Ezzat G. Bakhoum who wrote (2689)	6/4/1998 5:32:00 AM
From: Garth Richmond	Respond to of 5827

First, a warm welcome to you, Dr. Bakhoum. Glad to have you aboard. Hi All, I've been busy the last while, but thought I would interject here with a few thoughts anyway. First, the glass issue. I must join the ranks of the skeptics on this one. One of Ballard's most significant achievements has been the phenomenal increase in power density of the Fuel Cell, over 10X in the past eight years (see chart on pg. 18 of Ballard's 1997 Annual Report). To do this, they stack membranes side by side as closely as possible. Thickness of the membrane is therefore very important. Many of us have seen the Ballard membranes, at least on TV. They are very thin. A piece of glass that thin would be very fragile indeed, and clearly unsuitable for the bumps and strains of mobile power. The membrane is nice and flexible, not brittle. Unless the glass has similar characteristics, they will not be able to solve the power density problem. For other applications, like stationary power, this won't matter as much, so if they were much cheaper to produce, they could succeed there. In general, mobile power is by far the most demanding FC application. There are many issues like power density, operation temperature, hazardous substance restrictions, etc. which are non-issues in other areas. That is why most of the FC co's are not even trying to crack the mobile power market. Second point: Patent info on the net. Check out patents.ibm.com This is one of Ballard's PEM patents. I believe you can see the complete patent document here, complete with pictures (don't ya just love the internet? ;-) Third, insider selling. Generally means nothing. If you had 95% of your net worth in one stock, wouldn't you want to take some profit? Or, if they are buying a house, for example, they need the cash. In fact, in some cases it can mean BUY. For example, if it is within a restricted time period, e.g. right before earnings are announced, insiders that sell will get nailed for insider trading if results are poor. They would only dare to sell if they know results are good. On the other hand, insider buying is definitely a bullish signal, although insiders tend to buy too early (well before the bottom) and aren't always the best indicator to use. Regards, Garth.