SOLUTION TO POWER CRISIS? FIRM CREATES HYDROGEN FUEL CELL THAT CAN GENERATE ELECTRICITY.

Byline: Kathleen Sweeney Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - As officials struggle to solve the state's energy crisis, a Valencia company has developed a clean-burning hydrogen fuel cell that generates electricity.

Diversified Commercial Hydrogen Technology Inc. has created hydrogen fuel cells, which are powered by hydrogen, water and air, to be used much like standard batteries.

``Hydrogen is one of the most prevalent production chemicals in the world,'' said David Haberman, DCH chairman. ``There are grand plans to charge cars and buses.''

In 1998, the Enable Fuel Cell Corp., a subsidiary of DCH, developed the portable fuel cell to introduce the commercial market to the fuel as an electricity alternative. The 12-watt unit cell, the size of a beverage can, is lightweight with no moving parts that will create harmful emissions.

It provides power for unlimited applications, including minigenerators, lighting, communications, power scooters, bikes, wheelchairs, cars, boats and buses.

The solid metal canister is supplied with a 70-liter bottle of hydrogen to provide electricity and releases only water vapor. One fuel cell will last longer than batteries, depending on applications, and is rechargeable with a new bottle of hydrogen. So far, a price hasn't been determined, but it will cost less than fossil fuels.

``We see it in service to people very, very soon,'' Haberman said. ``Batteries will be replaced by fuel cells.''

Chemists have been studying hydrogen, a flammable, colorless, odorless, gaseous chemical element, considered the lightest known substance, for centuries and the government has been using it for decades.

In 1776, Henry Cavendish, an English chemist and physicist who spent years studying the properties of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, discovered that hydrogen was a separate substance. He was the first chemist to produce water from hydrogen and oxygen.

About 50 years later, Sir William Grove split water to produce hydrogen and oxygen, and then discovered the fuel cell.

In the early 1900s, according to the Department of Energy, the United States used ``town gas,'' a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, as a form of energy before replacing it with natural gas.

Haberman said the defense industry started using the flammable fuel in 1979 to launch rockets, and NASA is continuing to use hydrogen to rocket shuttles into space.

The Department of Energy contends it's the fuel of the future, and recently DCH showcased three new hydrogen-based products and services at the 12th Annual National Hydrogen Association Exposition in Washington, D.C. Those included a 6-volt battery, hydrogen water taxi, a hand-held hydrogen sensor, and a services business called the Center for Hydrogen Safety.

DCH also has signed an agreement with Skeljungur Ltd., the Shell Distributors in Iceland, in which the energy provider will distribute DCH Enable Fuel Cell as part of a six-month market opportunity assessment.

It also has an agreement with Icelandic New Energy, a commercial consortium that includes several global and Icelandic businesses, to provide hydrogen fuel to users of DCH fuel cells from a hydrogen depot.

While Haberman considers hydrogen ``a perfect fuel,'' he said it's also a combustible chemical. So the company worked with the Department of Energy in creating hydrogen sensors that detect the odorless substance in the air.

Tiny sensors are placed on a computer chip that can be installed in various detectors, including wall boxes and hand-held devices, that will sense hydrogen in the air, Haberman said.

The chips read the air quality and send information to computers, which will report whether the hazardous chemical is present in the air, Haberman said. This type of technology could have prevented the hydrogen explosions at the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear power plants.

``Together, they provide information necessary to make hydrogen safe,'' Haberman said. ``We've brought a piece of the Silicon Valley to Santa Clarita.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) At left, Commercial Hydrogen Technology Chairman David Haberman shows a computer product that can detect hydrogen and warn if there is a hazardous amount in the air.

(3) Fuel cells can be refilled by using easy-to-handle canisters.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer