Both Linde and TOTAL have taken a step in reducing the world’s carbon footprint by supplying green hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles in Germany this past week. Both companies are producing hydrogen from clean and renewable resources.
According to Linde, “The hydrogen generated from biodiesel by-products at the company’s pilot plant in Leuna, Germany, was certified by TÜV SÜD, one of the world’s leading test, inspection and certification organisations, in time for the HANNOVER MESSE 2012 trade show … The pilot facility has shown that the pyroreforming process developed by Linde on the basis of raw glycerine has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 50 percent compared with conventional hydrogen production processes using natural gas. Advancing the pilot facility to a commercial-scale, fully mature production plant would increase potential greenhouse gas savings to up to 80 percent.”
But, wait, there’s more. General Motors talks about an even cleaner method to produce h2, which is wind to hydrogen as pioneered by TOTAL and ENERTRAG, “For the first time, the longstanding Opel partners TOTAL and ENERTRAG have started to supply a Berlin gas station with hydrogen fuel produced from wind power. Both companies have been testing fuel cell vehicles for everyday use. The hybrid power station run by ENERTRAG in the Berlin district of Prenzlau is now supplying ‘green’ hydrogen fuel to gas stations owned by TOTAL. This means that vehicles taking part in the hydrogen fuel CEP (Clean Energy Partnership) supported by the German government will now be powered by environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel sourced from wind power. The Opel HydroGen4 run by TOTAL was the first vehicle to be fuelled in Berlin with the new ‘green’ hydrogen.”
The Opel HydroGen4 in the United States is known as the GM HydroGen4. So, there you have it. This is exactly why Germany is leading the world in hydrogen cars and hydrogen infrastructure development. The Germans have committed to the idea that hydrogen cars will run our future and have put this idea into action by quickly developing infrastructure to support the vehicles.
I’m concerned about the political ad, not this article on hydrogen infrastructure in Germany. There are as many Republicans who want hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as there are Democrats where saying that Republicans as a group don’t care about the environment or that Democrats as a group do care is an oversimplification.
Let us not forget that former president Bush is one of the highest profile politician to ever call for a hydrogen economy.
As concerned as Obama is supposed to be about the environment, isn’t he okaying drilling in Alaska? There is also a strong push to develop the Canadian tar sands which nobody in Washington seems to be discouraging right now.
I think we need a fact check on political ads and maybe there shouldn’t be any on a web site like this one.
Yes with the Presidential election in November of this year, silly season for political ads as begun. Google serves up the ads on this website and blog. Many different kinds of ads are rotated into the mix and I don’t have much control over what ads are served up in this blog. So just grin and bear with it until silly season is over.
Oil’s monopoly on transportation is ending gradually and inevitably.
The only thing the politicians can do is speed up or slow down the process by a year or two. And then take the (completely undeserved) credit.