HYDROGEN SAFETY COMPANY OPENS SECOND VALENCIA SITE.

Byline: Sharon Cotal Staff Writer

VALENCIA - A company specializing in hydrogen safety has opened a large manufacturing facility in the Valencia Industrial Park that will serve as a center for the development and production of equipment.

DCH Technology Inc.'s new Hydrogen Technology Manufacturing Facility will serve as a center for the development of hydrogen-specific leak detection and process monitoring equipment.

DCH Chairman David Haberman said the new facility is unique in that it combines digital technology with hydrogen specific analog sensors, using the same computer chip technology that operates computers and cell phones.

``It may not sound very sexy, but it's a big deal technologically,'' said Haberman. ``We build the safety and sensor equipment that permits the use of hydrogen and directly affects public safety.''

It is the second Valencia facility for DCH, which employs 70 people at its four locations in Valencia; Madison, Wis., and Tel Aviv, Israel.

``The level of sophistication and reliability these sensors offer will greatly enhance the safety of any industrial process using hydrogen - from protecting semiconductor and refinery processes to the detection of hydrogen gas leaks in nuclear power facilities,'' he said.

The facility is dedicated to the memory of Larry Parsons, the designer of the DCH Hydrogen System for nuclear power facilities. Parsons created a safety system for a nuclear power plant in Leningrad, Russia, to prevent a hydrogen detonation like the one in Chernobyl.

In addition to current sensor products, DCH has plans to introduce a low-cost, highly accurate, low-range hydrogen detector and a highly sensitive, fiber-optic gas detector that will compete with products currently on the market.