BMW at its U. S. corporate home at Woodcliff Lake, N.J., has decided to open its own hydrogen fueling station. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are talked about so often that one can easily forget that not all hydrogen cars have fuel cells.
Take for instance the BMW Hydrogen 7 dual fuel vehicle that has an internal combustion engine that can be powered by either gasoline or hydrogen with the flip of a switch. And, while it’s true that in some parts of the country, hydrogen fueling stations are more plentiful than New Jersey (California that has 26) it is also true that the BMW Hydrogen 7 cannot just pull in and fuel up at any old H2 fueling station.
The BMW Hydrogen 7 uses liquid hydrogen fuel stored inside a cryogenic tank. This means the vehicle is limited in the U. S. as to where it may find liquid hydrogen for refueling. BMW is building the liquid hydrogen fueling station at its headquarters in New Jersey to help test its fleet of Hydrogen 7 vehicles in the area.
When BMW loans its million dollar car to a Million Dollar Baby such as Hilary Swank, it needs to know that celebrities and other notables won’t be calling AAA or other roadside assistance. According to the National Hydrogen Association website this will be the first hydrogen fueling station opened in New Jersey.
Good. How much energy does it take to liquefy hydrogen anyways?
Of the 26 stations in California, how many of those dispense liquid
hydrogen?
Is BMW the only automaker pursuing liquid hydrogen because it
is so prohibitively expensive?
What is the ETA on a cheaper mass producible version of the BMW
Hydrogen 7? Why is it taking a long time for the car companies to
move away from platinum? Why is 2015 the earliest date suggested
by Toyota for mass production of hydrogen cars? It seems using the
necessary technology one could start mass production of hydrogen
cars in 2-3 years, not 6-10.
Wow, so many questions in one post! Most of these can be answered by doing a few searches on this blog or on the main website.
For the kinds of stations in California do a search at this link:
I think mass production could start in 2 or 3 years and then what? There are too few fueling stations to support the cars. The infrastructure issue is the most important one that has to be addressed now since it far lags the building of hydrogen cars.
Are there plans for a refueling station in central NJ near the shore?
Hello, here is a handy H2 fueling station map that shows stations worldwide that are active, planned or decommissioned.
http://www.netinform.net/h2/H2Stations/Default.aspx
Here is a U.S. public fueling station map maintained by the feds.
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/hydrogen_locations.html
Some say using hydrogen produced from traditional petroleum fuel sources results in higher well-to-wheel emissions. However, there has been some recent positive research into production of hydrogen from biobutanol, a renewable resource.
http://www.arl.army.mil/arlreports/2011/ARL-TR-5732.pdf
Hi Barry, thanks for the info. I’ve got the link to the public fueling stations on this page: https://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/index.php/h2-fuel-locator/ but it’s always good to share an important link like this more than once.
The Army page about biobutanol to hydrogen is news to me, so much thanks for that – very interesting!