In the movie “What About Bob?” Bill Murray talked about taking “baby steps.” An ancient Chinese proverb says, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” At the upcoming Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, NV, Horizon will unveil its HydroFill home hydrogen fueling device which may mean we are a step away from hydrogen car commercialization.
The HydroFill, when it becomes commercial is expected to be able to refuel hydrogen cars in the privacy of one’s own home. Now, I’ve talked about home hydrogen fueling stations many times in the past and this product may be just what the industry needs to jumpstart the chicken-or-the-egg syndrome when it comes to which will be built first, the cars or the fueling stations.
The Horizon Hydrofill can run off AC at night when the electricity rates are the lowest, electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen and refill their metal hydride canisters. The next day the hydrogen fuel cell car or smaller device can be refueled from the canister.
The Hydrofill may not be introduced commercially in 2010, however as development is ongoing. Horizon is already selling, however, a 20-liter hydrogen storage tank made of aluminum alloy outside and metal hydride inside.
Now, while the HydroFill is a big idea that Horizon is still working on, this same company has decided to start a bit smaller and offer a commercial line of micro-fuel cell power packs for recharging small electronic devices such a lighting products, USB devices and cell phones.
In summer 2009, I had talked about how Horizon had created the fuel cell for the economical Riversimple fuel cell city car. An affordable Riversimple plus Hydrofill home fueling station may be the ticket to sooner rather than later introduction of hydrogen cars and infrastructure into the marketplace.
Kevin,
I’ve been begging you to make this a more important Story for H2 for 3 years!
Thank you for bringing Home Refueling to you Front Page!
Now Hydrogen Cars can tap into Green Energy production, Solar panels on your roof.
Hi David,
I’ve heard you and do publish about home hydrogen fueling stations whenever I can.
Here’s some articles in which I’ve mentioned this:
https://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/?s=home+hydrogen+fueling
I will also continue to talk about this as I believe this will help speed hydrogen cars to market. We’re on the same page about this one.
Dear Kevin,
Thank you for your coverage and insight. I think you are starting to uncover our approach to gradually unlocking the hydrogen economy.
Yes, all the various news and developments are indeed related and we are in fact showing the working HydroFILL at CES this week. It is only a first step towards larger systems, but this can already refuel various small fuel cell powered devices (also shown at CES).
The Hydrofill design eliminates the need for compressors, is low cost, and easy to use – it’s designed for consumers. Our H2 storage devices are also available in multiple shapes and sizes, from 10L to 500L. Each time a larger refueling system is released (say every year), more fuel cell enabled products will come along with it.
Currently the main advantages for the Hydrofill system include fast charge and higher energy capacity or long run time for numerous electric powered devices. Our technologies will continue to grow and evolve until we all become our own hydrogen stations (the HydroFILL starts the trend), so we are able to charge our electric cars quickly, and run them for much longer distances.
Thanks for your continued reviews and analysis.
Taras W.
co-Founder, Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies
http://www.horizonfuelcell.com
Kevin,
You are to be commended for shining the light on Horizon’s Hydrofil line (and all distributed solutions). They are moving in the right direction.
The relatively recent breakthroughs in both fuel cell materials & costs as well as H2 gen efficacy improvements will lead to both auto and home/ distributed in-situ, on-demand solutions in the not too distant future.
These solutions will significantly mitigate or eliminate much of the problems currently envisioned ahead in the H2 supply infrastructure. We will still need govt support but within several years, these efficacies above hydrocarbon fuels should begin to pull H2 FCV adoption.
Keep up the great work!
I’m ur biggest fan. I’m trying to put together a ‘flow chart’ that will inform folks who want to convert their cars to run on hydrogen. This chart will tell them where they can get kits for ‘solar’, ‘H2 reformers’, ‘H2 Generators’, ‘Hydride Tanks’ with all the interface requirements so they can assemble a system. Unfortunately, u folks don’t understand the first step a user needs to know to do this. As in, how much electrical power does a H2 Reformer use to charge a set of Hydride Tanks that will power a car for 300 miles. Once this is known, I can then proceed to spec a solar panel system for my roof that will provide that power. Starting to catch on??
My question, how much electrical power (watts) are needed to run a reformer for 10 hours?? Also, what is the operating pressure required to ‘load’ these Hydride Tanks in 10 hours so as to provide enough H2 to power my vehicle for 300 miles?? As U see, I may need to add a comressor too.
Thank You,
Fred Cordia
Space Shuttle
Senior Project Manager
fcordia@gmail.com
PS: I have developed a National Energy Plan to switch the U.S. from ‘oil’ to hydrogen in 15 yrs. I have done significant research on this subject. Kits, public knowledge and economic leverage is the only way to defeat the Oil Companies, otherwise, they will ‘snuff’ anyone or any plan to do other than ‘oil’. I advertise ‘Auto Fuel for Free’. . . . . . that should get attention. But we gotta help them know how to do it!!!!!