The body of this was posted on the freenrg list, so I did a search on
the Tampa newspaper site and found this;
http://newslibrary.krmediastream.com/cgi-bin/search/tt
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ODESSA - Call it voodoo. Call it black magic. Call it whatever you
like; the visionaries at Dais Corp. call it the future. Imagine a
"battery" that you never had to replace.
An emissions-free power source that could run your lawn mower, camping
gear, even your car - for 5,000 hours. Now stop imagining; the
technology exists. "It's magic that's very close to being
commercialized," says Tim Tangredi, president and chief executive
officer of Dais Corp.
The Odessa-based company of 11 employees has started producing and
marketing fuel cells they say will change the way people live. Dais,
which hopes to grow to about 50 employees by year's end, manufactures
the cells from a makeshift laboratory in its facility located on
appropriately named Destiny Way.
There, chemists clad in white lab coats painstakingly spread the
company's patented solution, Dais 585, into a thin film that is then
laminated. The resulting membrane is sandwiched between two
electrodes, then set flush with other sandwiches to form a stack.
Voltage and current are controlled by varying the size of individual
cells or the number stacked together.
Though the technological specifics can be complicated, how the stacks
work is simple, they say. Oxygen travels across each cell's
platinum-laced membrane and chemically reacts with hydrogen being
pumped inside the cell. The result is electricity, water, a little
heat - and a lot of excitement.
"The technology itself, I think, is a gold mine," said Tom Gola, who
recruits new industry for the Pasco Economic Development Council, the
county's primary industrial recruiting and retention group. "Can you
imagine never having to pay an electricity bill again? Running
everything on hydrogen?"
Consumers likely will get their first crack in specialty markets or
high-end products, such as yachts, recreational vehicles or custom
homes, said Glenn Doell, Dais' vice president of marketing and
business development. Rural areas not on the local electricity grid
also could be fuel-cell candidates.
As the technology becomes more commonplace - and less expensive - it
will find its way into smaller items such as portable generators and
lawn and camping equipment. "I think you'll see fuel cells at the
consumer level within the next two years," said Tangredi, who likens
the product's predicted path to that of propane gas. It is not the
main fuel source out there, but its popularity is growing.
Still, fuel-cell-powered cars likely won't show up for at least five
years because of the money and time needed to develop something
commercially viable, Doell said. Gola first heard about Dais in
September 1996, when it was looking for a new home. The company was
born and gestated in the business incubator program at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, a 175-year-old engineering technology school in
New York. Last fall, it moved its headquarters to the West Pasco
Industrial Park, with the help of a $250,000 low-interest federal
economic development loan.
Gola, who worked with Dais in securing the loan, sees endless
possibilities for a product that is clean (no toxic emissions), quiet
(no moving parts) and creates no disposal dilemma (unlike batteries).
The potential for growth also seems to have few limits, with the
market for fuel cells and related materials estimated to reach $12
billion within five years. "All over the place you hear about
alternative fuels, and these guys have a niche on it, a very good
niche," Gola said.
Besides those interested in environmentally friendly energy
generation, Dais' diverse market could range from coatings for medical
implants to applications in desalination. With desal, an area Doell
said they've just started exploring, the material can be used in a way
that essentially allows the water to pass through while keeping back
impurities.
Doell said Dais is collaborating with Saint Leo College on local
efforts to bring a regional desalination plant to west Pasco - though
some Pasco County officials and environmental activists would prefer
the plant be on Tampa Bay. They fear salty water discharged from a
desalination plant could hurt sea life just off Pasco's shore. While
fuel cell technology has been around since 1839, it has never been
made affordable enough for the general public. Modern-day efforts to
bring the cost down include ventures by General Electric, DuPont,
NASA, Mobil and Shell Oil.
"We feel we have something that's ahead of the rest of the
technology," Tangredi said. Hence the name Dais: a Greek word meaning
"head" or "front of." The magic is in the membrane - and the ordinary
ingredients used in making the fuel cell sandwiches: stainless steel
and the rubber used in sneaker soles. "The whole premise behind Dais
was to come up with less expensive raw materials to allow fuel cell
technology to become commonplace," Tangredi said. "Stainless steel and
rubber are materials that are in products that every person owns, and
that's where it has to go for the technology to be viable."
Inexpensive materials will allow them to compete with existing energy
sources, though Tangredi said the Florida market will likely be harder
to break in to because electricity rates are more competitive here.
The company, currently housed in a 2,800-square-foot space in the
industrial park, has plans to develop along with the emerging fuel
cell market. Part of the $250,000 from the county is earmarked for
expanding that facility and outfitting it to produce the materials
Dais must now have made by other companies.
The company also plans to grow its 11-person staff to 48 employees by
the end of the year. That number is expected to nearly double by the
end of 2000, Tangredi said. Thus far, there has been substantial
interest from those in the field. "Because the technology is new and
a lot of people are attracted to it, we get resumes e-mailed to us
three or four times a week," said Scott G. Ehrenberg, vice president
of engineering and technology for Dais.
Ehrenberg, formerly of IBM, has been with Dais since its inception in
1993. Tangredi credits him with having the vision to get the
technology off the ground. Currently, Dais holds three patents; three
others are pending, among those pending is one for a compound that
would produce hydrogen when combined with water. That effort is being
helped along by Massachusetts-based Smith & Wesson Corp., which
recently signed a contract with Dais to jointly develop the "hydrogen
on demand" product. To date, Dais has sold more than 200 prototype
stacks worldwide - to national labs, universities and Fortune 50
companies.
And Dais also has some high-profile backers, with funding by the
federal energy office, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, the state of New York, Wright Malta (a small,
defense-related contractor) as well as private investors.
"We're very fortunate to have that kind of support for such a little
company," Tangredi said.(CHART) To learn more about Dais Corp., call
(727) 375-8484 or visit Dais' Web site at http://dais.net.
PHOTO (2C) CHART; Caption: (C) Joe Serpico, a senior scientist at
Dais Corp., works with a test device in the manufacturing process for
fuel cell stacks, just one of the firm's innovations. BOB
WESTENHOUSER/Tribune photo; (C) Scott Ehrenberg hooks a connector to a
fuel cell at Dais Corp., where he is a vice president. The corporation
has 11 employees. BOB WESTENHOUSER/Tribune photo - The Tampa Tribune
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