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

To: Rickmas who wrote (4207)	5/21/1999 9:03:00 AM
From: Hawkeye	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

Thursday May 20 9:42 PM ET Full Cell Buses Could Hit Market Sooner Than Expected By Allan Dowd VANCOUVER (Reuters) - The ''Hindenberg Syndrome'' is not as bad as Ballard Power Systems Inc (Nasdaq:BLDP - news) and DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE:DAJ - news) had feared, so fuel cell-powered buses could on the market sooner than expected, officials said Thursday. Concern about riding and repairing vehicles with noticeable hydrogen-filled fuel tanks on top of them was among the psychological issues that backers of the buses knew they had to overcome to get the vehicles into world mass-transit fleets. ''We were so surprised, really. Not the mechanical people, not the drivers, not the passengers are caring about this,'' said Ferdinand Panik, DaimlerChrysler's senior vice president for fuel cell technology. Panik, a member of Ballard's board of directors, told Ballard's shareholders meeting that commercial marketing of fuel-cell engines for busses could begin as early as 2002, up to two years sooner than some previous predictions. Fuel cells use hydrogen to make electricity through a chemical reaction involving oxygen and a catalyst. The only byproduct is water, so they have hailed an the environmental alternative to the internal combustion engine. Experimental fuel-cell powered buses are being tested in Chicago and Vancouver. They are easy to spot, with nine fuel tanks holding compressed hydrogen in a rectangular box on their roofs. Panik acknowledged to reporters after the shareholders' researchers were worried that people would not feel safe riding under tanks of a fuel that is best known to many as the source for the Hindenberg zeppelin explosion in 1937. ''This Hindenberg Syndrome was something that wasn't existing (researchers found),'' Panik said. Ballard Chief Operating Officer Layle ''Kip'' Smith said testing of the buses in the mass transit fleets of Chicago and Vancouver has gone better than expected in terms of mechanical issues as well. The companies have said they expect fuel-cell powered buses to hit the commercial market before passenger cars do, in part, because per-vehicle costs is less of the concern in entering the mass transit market. DaimlerChrysler hopes begin limited commercial production of fuel-cell powered cars in 2004 or 2005. It is one of several companies involved in a project to on fuel cell vehicles in California.

To: Rickmas who wrote (4207)	5/21/1999 9:30:00 AM
From: John Curtis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

To All: Article in May 15th issue of Science News, page 314, entitled "Catalysts make hydrogen under the hood" Government researchers have discovered a new class of catalysts that convert fossil fuels into clean-burning hydrogen gas at temperatures much lower than previously thought possible. Because combustion of hydrogen produces only heat and water, automakers hope to tap it as fuel for a new generation of pollution-free vehicles. Without a national system of hydrogen filling stations, however, engineers are designing cars with on-board reactors that can generate hydrogen from gasoline. Currently available reactors operate at temperatures of 1,100 degrees C or higher, says Shabbir Ahmed of the Department of Energy's Argonne(Ill.) National Laboratory. These hot temperatures mean high engine wear and energy usage. The new catalysts, whose composition the Argonne researchers have not revealed, operate below 800 degrees C and work on a variety of fuels. Gasoline and diesel exposed to the materials yield a mixture of gases that is 60 percent hydrogen, while natural gas yields 42 percent. The catalysts also seem not to plug up reactors with solid carbon, a problem with other catalysts. About 2 liters of a catalyst in pellet form can generate a hydrogen flow that will yield about 3 kilowatts of power. A light vehicle needs 40 to 50 kW to run. If others confirm the results, says Argonnes's Michael Krumpelt, "industry will have to come to its own conclusions" about the usefulness of the catalysts. The scientists are currently seeking a patent for the materials. ------- Pretty "nifty", eh? And I love the understatement of "industry will have to come to its own conclusions", heh! By the way, it doesn't surprise me there isn't a Hindenberg syndrome. Jeeezus, HOW long ago was that disaster? I daresay a majority of the population doesn't remember, or connect with, that event. So no surprise to me. OT - Nope, I fly but never there.... Regards! John~