N. Vancouver firm

3 ~ Sunday, October 30, 1988 - North Shore News

gets federal grant

to develop product for U.S. military

A NORTH Vancouver company that currently leads the
world in non-polluting portable energy technology has
received $406,176 in federal Western Diversification funding
to help it develop a line of high-energy batteries for the U.S.

military.

BTC Engineering Ltd., a sub-
Sidiary of Eallard Technologies
Corp., will use the money for a
project to modify its lithium-
sulphur-dioxide battery into a
variety of configurations required
under a $1 million U.S. Armed
Forces contract.

Total project cost is estimated at
$710,000.

The company is also negotiating
a $2 million contract with the Ca-
nadian government to supply bat-
teries to the Canadian military.

Developer
unaware

of heritage
significance

From page 2

tend the option, Tay and Cressey
were ‘trying to pressure council."

“(The pressure is) so we don't
have a chance to investigate (the
possible heritage significance of
the hotel), We are asking for a
consultant’s report so we can make
an intelligent decision,”’ Bell said.

Tay purchased the building on
Sept. 30 last year. ‘‘We were aware
it was an old building,’’ said Tay,
but said he wasn’t aware that it
was on the 1984 heritage list.

But said Bell: ‘Anyone going to
invest that kind of money’ in a
development should have resear-
ched the potential heritage value of
the building.

In an attempt to avoid problems
arising over future applications for
the development of heritage sites,
Ald. Barbara Sharp made a notice
of motion which would inform and
deal with owners of identified his-
torical sites and would examine the
possibility of considering alter-
native bonuses to encourage
owners to retain heritage sites.

Transit authorities going over cause r
of bus crash with ‘a fine-tooth comb’

TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

Ballard president Keith Prater
said the company’s North Van-
couver facilities have consequently
been expanded to include a battery
manufacturing operation capable
of producing 1,000 batteries per
day.

As a result, he said the company
plans to hire 12 new employees
early next year and another 10 at a

later date.

He estimated annual market for
the batteries with the U.S. and
Canadian military alone at $50
million and $10 million respective-

ly.
BTC is the only company in
Canada and one of only five com-
panies in North America with the
technology needed to manufacture
lithium-sulphur-dioxide batteries.
Thus far the market for the bat-
teries is primariiy with the military,
but Prater said commercial ap-
plications for the product abound.
The lithium-sulphur-dioxide bat-
tery has three times the shelf life
and delivers three to 10 times the
power output of comparable
alkaline batteries.
It also performs well in extreme-

ly cold weather.

“Alkaline and all other bat-
teries start to fail at O Celsius,”
Prater said, ‘‘but ours will operate
at -40 C to -50C.”’

Because of its unique charac-
teristics, the battery is used in
spacecraft and in the Personal
Locator Beacons found in military
fighter aircraft.

Prater said BTC is investigating
uses for the battery in Canada's
north.

BTC’s battery, he said, is as
good as the American designs, but
performs better in lower
temperatures.

In 1986, Ballard won a $100,000
contract from the European Space
Agency to develop the battery for
use in the agency’s Titan space

program.

BTC Membranes, another
Ballard subsidiary, was recently
awarded $109,068 from the Science
Council of B.C. for research into
the development of a more effi-
cient low-cost solid polymer elec-
trolyte.

The material will be used as the
membrane in the non-polluting
Solid Polymer Fuel Cells (SPFC)
currently being developed by
Ballard.

Commercial, military and in-
dustrial applications for SPFCs
range from electric automobiles to
airplanes to underwater vehicles.

The fuel cells convert the chemi-
cal energy in a fuel directly to elec-
tric power without intermediate
thermal or mechanical processes.

Papas ea
NEWS photo Mike Wakefleld

THE RAGING Grannies appeared at an all-candidates meeting at Capilano College on Tuesday (o sing their message to all who would listen. The
Raging Grannies are a fun-loving group of grandmothers who carry a serious message about the dangers facing our planet. The Grannies said they
were at (he meeting not to protest against any particular party or candidate but to raise awareness of issues that they thivk should be dealt with.

PROVINCIAL TRANSPORT and BC Transit investigators
examining the molten remains of a bus — which burst into
flames Thursday afternoon after it rolled backwards down
upper Lonsdale Avenue, crashing into a power pole and a
car — are attempting to determine what caused the bus to
run away driverless after it had been parked for at least five

minutes.

Said BC Transit North Van-
couver operations and SeaBus
manager Brian Kelly: ‘‘They’re go-
ing over it with a fine-tooth comb
and they're pursuing causes
anywhere from mechanical failure
to somebody tampering with the
brakes on the bus and virtually
anything in between.”

The spectacular chain of events
began to unfold at approximately 4
p.m. when a passenger got off the
bus at a stop near West Kings
Road on Lonsdale, and was struck
by a southbound car. An 18-year-
old youth is in stable condition at
Lions Gate Hospital.

North Vancouver unit Provincial
Ambulance Service attendant John
Dell, who treated the injured male
at the scene for head injuries, said
the bus driver had left the bus to

By MICHAEL BECKER

News Reporter

aid the victim and call for
emergency response. The bus had
been carrying approximately 25
passengers at the time it had stop-
ped. Most had disembarked, but
two passengers stayed behind on
the bus.

Said eyewitness Dell: ‘‘Some-
body screamed, ‘The bus is roll-
ing!’ The bus driver stood there in
total dismay and then he started
running after it. We all stood there
in horror as it rolled. It was ini-
tially heading for some cars stop-
ped at the light at Queens and
Lonsdale, but fuckily it) started
veering.”

The two remaining passengers, a
youth and a woman, managed to

leap from the open door of the
rolling bus. The elderly woman
suffered a fracture and was taken
to Lions Gate Hospital.

The bus rolled approximately
400 feet and came to a rest just
feet away from the Queens Cross
Pub at the corner of Queens and
Lonsdale, after it snapped off the
power pole and rammed a late
model Camaro. The female driver
of the Camaro had just been in-
volved in another minor motor
vehicle accident, where her car had
been rear-ended, and was in the
process of turning into the pub
parking lot to take information
when her vehicle was struck by the
runaway bus.

A cluster of three, 1,000-volt
amp transformers on the power
pole crashed onto the bus’s roof.
The impact damaged the trans-
formers and emptied approximate-
ly 160 litres of mineral insulating
oil. An arcing 7,200 volt power
line ignited the oil-drenched bus
minutes after the crash, sending a
thick, black cloud of smoke into
the air.

B.C. Hydro tested the spilled oil

at the site for PCB contamination
and determined the oil contained
less than five parts per million.
Said BC Hydro apparatus depart-
ment manager George McCrae:
“The good news is it had for all
intents and purposes no PCBs in
it.”

McCrae said trace levels of
PCBs were present in the trans-
formers because of cross con-
tamination at the manufacturing

stage. But he estimated eight per |

cent of the transformers in use by
BC Hydro remain contaminated
with PCBs.

The Queens Cross Pub, which
narrowly missed taking the brunt
of the damage from the runaway
bus, was serving approximately 60
patrons when the accident occur-
red.

Said pub manager Milos Indic:
“We're just lucky the bus didn’t
go through the pub.”’

Said the pub's chef Charles
Carter, “We heard the bang, saw
the pole come down and saw this
fluid pouring out of the trans-
formers."*

INDEX |

Business .............. 34
Classified Ads..........47
Doug Collins........... 9
Comics...............- 46
Editorial Page.......... &
Fashion............... 17
Horoscopes ............ 46
Boh Hunter............ 4
Lifestyles..............43
Mailhox............... 7
TV Listings............23
Travel .............--- 40
What's Going On........35

WEATHER

Sunday, rain. Monday
and Tuesday, periods of
rain. Highs all three
days near 12°C.

Second Class Registration Number 3885