MAJOR CENTER TESTS LOCAL FIRM'S FUEL CELLS DCH'S SYSTEM CAN POWER HOME, OFFICE.

Byline: Daily News

VALENCIA - The Houston Advanced Research Center has ordered DCH Technology Inc.'s fuel cell power system with a natural gas reformer for testing and demonstration.

The Houston organization has organized a consortium to test the fuel cell's performance and reliability as a clean and affordable energy source.

Valencia-based DCH manufactures hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen sensors, an alternative to traditional power sources.

The consortium is assessing several state-of-the-art fuel cells or batteries as part of its multiyear study. Consortium members are Dana Corp., Southern Company, Texaco Energy Systems Inc. and Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development.

The DCH system, to be delivered the fourth quarter of this year, is the first fuel cell system with a natural gas reformer ordered by the Houston organization, according to the technical director of its fuel cell center, Bruce Rauhe.

``The DCH system selection was based on several criteria,'' he said. ``Most significantly, we wanted a unit that was close to commercialization and one that could operate in a stand-alone configuration using hydrocarbon fuel.''

Rauhe said the organization was encouraged by the performance of the DCH 3kW fuel cell, delivered earlier this year to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, and interested in testing the next-generation product with the added natural gas reformer.

The addition of a natural gas reformer is a significant competitive advancement for DCH, whose previous systems ran only on hydrogen gas, said DCH President and Chief Executive Officer John Donohue.

The natural gas technology is key to applying fuel cells to everyday needs using common power, such as natural gas, found in most homes and commercial buildings. The Houston center will be testing a system about the size needed to supply power to a typical home or to carry the critical loads in a small business office.

The Houston center ``is an outstanding research organization, and this study has a solid team of co-sponsors with whom we are delighted to work,'' Donohue said. ``This is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the safety, responsiveness and power performance of our fuel cell products. We are confident in the competitive advantages of our technology.''

The Houston organization created its Fuel Cell Research and Applications Center in July of 1998 in response to a growing demand for clean power- generation products. The center is involved in demonstration projects focusing on promising fuel cell technologies that might meet the needs of its sponsors.

Patrice Parsons, director of the Fuel Cell Research and Applications Center, said the consortium hopes to determine how fuel cells work both in large and small applications - from utility plants to single buildings.

Created in 1982, the Houston organization is a nonprofit, university- linked research institution with work in energy, the environment and policy studies.