Fueling Up With Hydrogen | Green Energy News

November 7, 2004 – Vol.9 No.33

FUELING UP WITH HYDROGEN.

In the opening of the first combined hydrogen/gasoline filling station in North America, Shell Hydrogen, which built the station in Washington, D.C., also outlined its plans to build its hydrogen filling station network.

In Step One of the long range plan are stand-alone projects with restricted access for small hydrogen-fueled fleets.

Step Two would be second-generation sites open to public but separate from gasoline filling stations.

Step Three would be filling stations with all fuels - gasoline, diesel, hydrogen - all at the same spot. (The aforementioned station is in this Step.)

Step Four - in the next five years - would be a mini-network Shell calls Lighthouse Projects, public-private partnerships for hydrogen filling stations that would refuel fleets of 100 or more vehicles.

And finally in Step Five between 2010 and 2020 Shell would begin filling the gaps between mini-networks to create corridors of hydrogen refueling stations.

Eventually to move to a hydrogen economy the refueling network would have to be as complex as the current petroleum fueling network. Shell Hydrogen claims it would like to be a leader in that new network.

The company does recognize, however, that to be a truly emission-free or emission-neutral fuel, hydrogen must come from renewable sources. Yet for now there isn’t enough renewable capacity to electrify our homes let alone electrolyze water into hydrogen for vehicle fuel.

Still, though Shell might be jumping the gun on hydrogen (the cars aren’t nearly ready for full commercialization) they get credit for being willing to put one foot forward into a new direction, even if that new direction is not certain.

General Motors, which was a partner in the project, will use the hydrogen filling station to refuel a small number of fuel cell minivans it has been operating in Washington for more than year. Visit Shell at http://www.shell.com/hydrogen .