American Honda, which three years ago began leasing five FCX Clarity fuel cell electric vehicles to film producer Ron Yerxa, author and actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest; business owner and car enthusiast Jim Salomon; actress Laura Harris; and Jon Spallino, has welcomed the opening this week of the world’s first station supplied by an existing hydrogen pipeline.
A press release from Honda Motor’s US sales and marketing unit did not mention that the new Shell hydrogen station is a collaborative effort between rival Toyota, as well as Air Products, Shell, South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and the Department of Energy (DOE).
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Each automaker has a large headquarters campus just five minutes apart in Torrance, an industrial city south of Los Angeles, and the new station is actually adjacent to Toyota’s campus on adjoining land the automaker leases to Shell “for a nominal fee”. Both automakers have praised the location close to several major freeway corridors and not far from LAX, the Los Angeles international airport. It taps into an existing industrial hydrogen pipeline serving a nearby refinery and has multiple fuel dispensers, which allow for the simultaneous refueling of four vehicles in less than five minutes.
Apparently getting one over Toyota, at an opening ceremony, Honda FCX Clarity customer Spallino became the first retail fuel-cell electric vehicle customer to refuel a vehicle at the station. Honda said its FCX Clarity customers now have access to seven hydrogen refueling stations across Southern California – over two dozen are currently on the road with individual customers.
Toyota said this week its fuel cell hybrid vehicle fleet has logged several million miles since hitting the road in 2002 “with significant technological improvements along the way”, chiefly a rise in range from 130 miles then to 431 miles by 2009, as well as better durability and cold temperature starting.
The automaker’s current FCHV-adv nationwide demonstration programme is in the process of placing around 100 vehicles with demonstration users by 2013, when it will be one of the largest fleets of active fuel cell vehicles in the country.
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By GlobalData“The primary goal of the demonstration program is to spur infrastructure development prior to fuel cell vehicle market introduction in 2015. Successful infrastructure development will require collaborative efforts between manufacturers, government regulators, and business, similar to the partnerships formed to open the Torrance Shell hydrogen demo station.”
“Vehicle demonstration programs and demonstration stations like the Torrance station are a critical next step in preparing the market for advanced technology vehicles and future fuels,” said TMS head of product and strategic planning, Chris Hostetter. “These innovative programmes allow us educate, inform and prepare our customers for the future.”
“This fueling station will be a tremendous model to show how effortless a pipeline supply of hydrogen can be to an automobile fueling station and other hydrogen fuel cell applications,” said Air Products’ energy business chief David Taylor. “This site will be a model to learn and expand pipeline fed stations as opportunities arise.”
Toyota noted that the close proximity of the hydrogen pipeline to its campus prompted it to think beyond vehicles to consider additional ways to use hydrogen. In 2010, Ballard Power Systems installed a 1Mw hydrogen fuel cell generator to offset peak electricity demand. The fuel cell generator will be fed directly from the hydrogen pipeline through an existing tap on the TMS property. Pipeline hydrogen used on campus will be offset with the purchase of landfill generated renewable bio-gas.
The system is scheduled for installation in 2012 and is estimated to reduce CO2 emissions by 10,000 tons with emission-free fuel cell technology. Plans include using heat created by the fuel cell system to provide hot water and space heating in the employee fitness centre and in the Lexus headquarters also on the headquarters campus. Use of this heat will offset natural gas consumption on campus, thereby avoiding an estimated additional 28 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
