Hydrogen Fueling Station Opens in Washington D.C. WASHINGTON - About four miles east of the U.S. Capitol, in an industrial section of town, sits a gas station that looks like any other. But it's not, because on Wednesday it became the first in North America to have a hydrogen dispensing pump. Shell executives, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) and District of Columbia Mayor Anthony A. Williams unveiled the technology, which the Bush administration hopes will help reduce the country's dependence on imported oil. "This will be, in fact, the first step toward the real transition in the economy from the carbon-based economies of the past to a hydrogen economy of the future," Abraham said. The pump services only six minivans which General Motors Corp. uses to demonstrate the technology. But with 80,000 vehicles passing by every weekday, Shell officials hope it'll get a lot of attention — and, eventually, use. GM hopes to sell affordable hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2010, and Shell envisions building on the number of stations and having mass-market penetration between 2015 and 2025. The minivans are equipped with fuel cell stacks which turn hydrogen into electricity to power the vehicle. The only emission is water vapor. Not everyone supports the refueling station. More than two dozen neighborhood residents with safety concerns protested the opening. Organizers said they don't want the station located 50 yards from an elementary school. George F. Smalley, a Shell Hydrogen spokesman, said the chances of an explosion were "very, very remote." Hydrogen deliveries will happen at night or on weekends, separately from gas deliveries, Smalley said. The underground storage tank has 24-hour electronic monitoring and the pump requires a security code to use.
just think if we would of spent the $200+ Billion we're spending in Iraq on developing this technology, we would be a lot closer to being energy independant today
I applaud anything, even small things, the government does to support such efforts. I like that the first one went up in DC; I know there are dozens planned for CA.
not in the best part of town and not really catching the bulk of the commuters, but any sort of step is a good one. Does anyone here actually own a hybrid or hydrogen car? people I do know claim they get 1,000 miles every time they fill up for gas (hybrids) and they'll never go back, i figure when i can actually afford to get one it might be worth it.
Guess where we get most of our hydrogen from? Fossile Fuels. Until we can extract hydrogen from sea water without using energy derived from fossile fuels to power the process we are still a long way from reducing our dependence on oil (or coal or natural gas, etc...). For example, if they could use solar power or wave power to extract hydrogen from water that would be very cool. BTW, the main emission from fuel-cell cars is water vapor which is a VERY powerful greenhouse gas. There is no free lunch.
Water vapor does indeed trap sunlight but I'm O.K. with that in the atmosphere it's sort of has a cycle for getting back to the ground that has worked in the past I think... rain, I think they call it? anyway you are right about hydrogen being mostly derived from oil, but hydrogen from coal is very promising for the future
Did they say how they produced the hydrogen? Steam methane reformation of natural gas? Electrolysis using coal-fired generated electricity? Either way the efficiencies are probably horrendous, and both rely on fossil fuels. I'm all for clean energy for transportation, but I'm not sure hydrogen is the solution.
There's also a process that takes CO2 out of the atmosphere and turns it into 02 called photosynthises. Not to mention a carbon cycle that takes CO2 out of the atmosphere and redistributes it in the oceans and elsewhere. I saw a show on the Science channel where some scientists theorize that as Venus warmed up, it's oceans evaporated. The extra water vapor in the atmosphere accelerated the greenhouse effect until Venus became the hell that it is today. Too much of anything is probably not good whether it's CO2 or water vapor.
Even the most optomistic estimates I've seen don't expect hydrogen to be anything more than a novelty before about 2010. Keep in mind hydrogen is a flamable/explosive gas. (See The Hindenburg.) In spite of all of the problems, however, it at least is a realistic and viable power source, as opposed to goofy unrealistic suggestions like wind or solar which are too ineffective to be ramped up to anything more than a fractional source of power.
In sorta-related news, I believe they just opened up a public ethanol gas station at Johnson Space Center.
