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California Energy Commission awards $3M for 100% renewable H2 fueling station

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has awarded Hydrogen Frontier, Inc. a $3-million grant to build a new 100% renewable hydrogen fueling station for fuel cell electric vehicles at Hyundai’s hydrogen energy generation and fueling station in Chino, Calif.

All of the energy consumed in generation and operation of the station and 100% of the fuel dispensed will come from a renewable source; energy used to create hydrogen will be purchased from a renewable energy provider.

With this upgrade, the station will be able to produce at least 100 kilograms of hydrogen per day, enough to dispense approximately 6,000 to 9,000 vehicle fill-ups with hydrogen annually. System pressures of 350 bar and 700 bar will allow fueling of all fuel cell vehicles (FCV) including fast refueling.

The station will have the capability to produce hydrogen from the electrolysis of water on site

The station, situated at a testing facility for Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc., will be located at the site of an existing hydrogen station originally constructed in 2005 to support Hyundai’s fuel cell vehicle fleet.

On top of the $3-million rebuilding project funded by the California Energy Commission grant, an additional $1.7 million funded by partners Hydrogen Frontier Inc., Powertech and ITM Power will go toward modernizing the facility to meet the latest industry standards for hydrogen generation, storage and dispensing.

The required completion date for the renovations is October 2014, at which point the fueling station will open to the public for the first time. The facility will increase the existing hydrogen fueling network in California and will be the first publicly accessible hydrogen fueling station in San Bernardino County.

Production of the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell began at the company’s Ulsan manufacturing plant in Korea in January 2013; the first complete car rolled off the assembly line on 26 February 2013. Hyundai is investigating potential demand for the Tucson Fuel Cell Vehicle in the US market, particularly in California, where most of the hydrogen refueling infrastructure development has taken place.

Hyundai has researched hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles in the United States since 2000. It is a member of the California Fuel Cell Partnership and has conducted fleet testing of three generations of SUV-based hydrogen vehicles across the United States.

Comments

HarveyD

It is a rather small station but a step in the right direction? A few humdred of these could become the back bone refueling network for FCEVs in California.

Roger Pham

@HarveyD,
Better yet, few hundred of these could become the back bone refueling network for FCEV's in the USA.

SJC

Landfill methane is way below pipeline grade, you can make hydrogen out of it rather than try to clean it up and concentrate it for natural gas.

Now that you have the hydrogen, use it in fuel cells twice as efficiently with no combustion nor carbon dioxide. There are great ideas for the future, but in our system it has to be massively profitable to get attention.

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