DCH Technology, Inc. engages in the acquisition, development, and commercial exploitation of hydrogen-based technologies. The company concentrates on fuel cells, hydrogen-specific sensors and hydrogen safety. It focuses on technologies related to the use of hydrogen, primarily hydrogen gas sensors and fuel cells. The company has two wholly-owned subsidiaries, DCH Sensors Corp., a California subsidiary and Enable Fuel Cell Corporation a Wisconsin subsidiary.
Products
The company is presently ma...
DCH Technology, Inc. engages in the acquisition, development, and commercial exploitation of hydrogen-based technologies. The company concentrates on fuel cells, hydrogen-specific sensors and hydrogen safety. It focuses on technologies related to the use of hydrogen, primarily hydrogen gas sensors and fuel cells. The company has two wholly-owned subsidiaries, DCH Sensors Corp., a California subsidiary and Enable Fuel Cell Corporation a Wisconsin subsidiary.
Products
The company is presently manufacturing and selling a line of hydrogen sensors that are both mobile (a hand held unit) and stationary (wall ceiling or conduit mounted units) to a wide range of industries and customers. DCH also develops, manufactures and sells fuel cells from as small as 12 watts to as large as 5 kWs.
Hydrogen Gas Sensors
The company’s sensors are used to detect gaseous hydrogen. These sensors act to alert, warn, measure and/or control the flow and use of hydrogen. The company is currently developing products based on these technologies: the Robust Hydrogen Sensor and the H2SCAN system.
The Robust Hydrogen Sensor
The Robust Hydrogen Sensor technology consists of an array of two sensing elements: field effect transistors (FET's) and resistors, both made of palladium nickel. Hydrogen reacts with the palladium nickel, and the reactions produce changes in the electrical signal of both devices corresponding to the amount of hydrogen in the environment.
The company offers the Robust Hydrogen Sensor technology in three basic forms. The first, an integration kit, is used for installation into customized systems as leak detectors and measurement devices. The second form consists of a hand-held unit, affording portability in hydrogen detection and measurement. The third form is a sensor system, a fixed installation arrangement for leak detection and/or measurement in remote locations. This third product has the ability to be remotely interrogated whenever desired, and may be coupled with a modem or radio tag which powers the sensor and sends an analog or digital signal back to a computer or other equipment at another location.
H2SCAN System
The company’s state of the art H2SCAN hydrogen-specific sensing systems offer a robust, high performance alternative to gas detectors used in many industries today, including food processing, petrochemical production, semiconductor manufacturing, and glass and metals processing. The H2SCAN system incorporates its Robust Hydrogen Sensor in a system that gathers analyzes and communicates data to control systems or human interface devices at digital speed.
The H2SCAN system is packaged as an application-specific family of products, ranging from hand-held portable leak detectors to wall mounted leak detectors and process monitors and rack mounted multiple sensor systems. The H2SCAN system provides improved resolution and stability over a greater environmental temperature range relative to the DCH wall/ceiling-mount systems it replaces. The company demonstrated this product as a prototype to L3 Communications which resulted in a contract to develop an H2SCAN system for one of L3's telecommunications applications.
Thick Film Hydrogen Sensor
The sensor is fabricated with conventional thick film materials and methods (primarily because of significant cost advantages). The design consists of several electronic compositions that are separately screen-printed and fired onto an alumna substrate. The key sensor composition is primarily composed of palladium metal because of its documented affinity for hydrogen.
Fiber Optic Hydrogen Sensor
DCH, through Amerisen, a joint venture with Midwest Research Technology, Inc. (MRT), commenced development of the Fiber Optic Hydrogen Sensor technology in 1996.
Fuel Cells
A fuel cell is a device that uses a fuel (usually hydrogen) to create electricity from an electrochemical process. A fuel cell produces clean power (electricity) with pure water as the only byproduct.
PEM FUEL CELL
The company is working with Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico (LANL) to commercialize its Proton-Exchange-Membrane (PEM) fuel cell -- a small, stackable device (each unit is approximately the same size as a soda can) that will deliver low power (less than 50 to 500 watts) reliably and cleanly.
The company produces PEM fuel cells in two power ranges, 5 to 50 watt and 1 kilowatt to 20 kilowatt. Each range is supported by licensed technology. The company’s 5 to 50 watt fuel cells (Passive PEM technology) rely on technology relating to annular feed air breathing fuel cell stacks, invented and patented (under U.S. patent numbers 5,514,486 and 5,595,834) by the U.S. DOE at LANL. The fuel cell is designed to provide clean, economic low power.
Competition
The company’s competitors include Hydrogenics, Plug Power, United Technology's ONSI Corporation and Ballard Power Systems.
The Analyst Price Target shows the analysts’ low, high, and average target at a glance.
