Dana fuel cell technology propels its scooter project

10/19/2004

DETROIT - Dana Corp.'s fuel-cell expertise was on display yesterday on a scooter that made its North American debut at the Convergence 2004 automotive electronics show here.

The scooter, one of three in the world, was introduced in April at the Hanover Industrial Fair in Germany and Dana engineers developed a number of fuel-cell components on it, including bi-polar plates, heat exchangers, pumps, and valves.

Fuel cells, which work essentially like batteries, use a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity, leaving only water and heat as byproducts. Dana's bi-polar plates each have two channels, one with hydrogen and one with oxygen, and a stack of them together helps power the scooter, said Jim Beyer, Dana's director of fuel cell business development.

The sealing technology developed for the plates is being provided to a customer for testing in homes, company officials said. ."