First Hydrogen Fueling Station Network In U.S. Now Stretches Across California
Thursday July 21, 2016
It's the classic chicken-or-the-egg question. If attempting to revolutionize the auto industry, do you introduce the car or the supporting infrastructure first? For Joel Ewanick, the answer was obvious get the infrastructure in place.
Ewanick, CEO of FirstElement Fuel Inc., is bringing hydrogen fueling stations to California under the consumer-facing brand True Zero to encourage mass adoption of the zero emission vehicle option. FirstElement Fuel selected Black & Veatch to engineer, permit and construct 19 hydrogen fueling stations across California. With 15 stations completed and 13 of those open for consumers, the project represents the largest retail hydrogen network in the world. It's backed by grants from the California Energy Commission and by loans from Toyota and Honda.
Since the early 1960s, hydrogen has been one of the ‘Holy Grails' of the automotive industry,†Ewanick said. Now, he noted, major car manufactures are in the beginning stages of introducing the world's next generation of vehicles powered by fuel cells.
They came out and said this is a viable option for the future for the propulsion of cars, so what's left? The infrastructure,†Ewanick said. That's where we came in.â€
The brand name True Zero speaks to the benefit that fuel cell vehicles will achieve.
True Zero symbolizes the ultimate goal a vehicle fuel with zero pollution, zero use of fossil fuels and zero greenhouse gases in both its production and use,†explained Ewanick. It's about the drive toward zero emissions from well to wheels toward zero impact on the environment from a motor vehicle.â€
The True Zero stations are located at existing gas stations across Northern and Southern California. The stations represent a critical step in supporting greater adoption of hydrogen fuel cell technology for transportation purposes. Fuel cell cars use an electrochemical process with hydrogen to generate electricity and power an electric motor. When consumed in a fuel cell vehicle, the only byproduct is water vapor with zero harmful emissions.
We're creating a network that demonstrates the utility of these vehicles, that actually shows they can go 300 miles between fill-ups,†Ewanick said. If you have a chain of these stations, you can drive from one end of California and back without any ‘range anxiety.'â€
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