The California Energy Commission approved grants of $18,690,000 for the building of 7 new hydrogen fueling station plus a few other hydrogen infrastructure upgrades. The major players, who must put up matching funds for the hydrogen fueling stations, include Linde LLC, Hydrogen Frontier Inc., Air Products and Air Liquide.
Here is the breakdown: “Linde, LLC, will receive $4.5 million to install three hydrogen fueling stations in the cities of Mountain View and Cupertino (both in Santa Clara County), and Foster City (San Mateo County). The agreement includes a $3,069,948 match-funding requirement.
“Hydrogen Frontier, Inc., will receive $3 million to build a 100 percent renewable hydrogen fueling station in Chino (San Bernardino County). The award agreement includes a $1,615,385 match-funding requirement.
“Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., will receive $2,999,172 to install two hydrogen fueling stations and to automate two trailer loading operations for transporting hydrogen for fueling from a production facility in Southern California. The fueling stations will be located in Woodland Hills (Los Angeles County) and Mission Viejo (Orange County). The award agreement includes a $1,614,927 match funding requirement.
“Air Liquide Industrial US LP, will receive $1.5 million to build a hydrogen fueling station in Anaheim (Orange County). The award agreement includes a $933,996 match-funding requirement.”
The South Coast Air Quality Management District will also receive $6.7 million to evaluate and upgrade public hydrogen fueling stations in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange Counties.
This will add 7 more hydrogen fueling stations to the California road map for hydrogen cars laid out by the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) in 2012.
I wish they would have specified the size of the stations in the press release.
If these are 1000 kg per day stations, this would be very cheap. If these are 100 kg per day stations, this is extremely expensive.
I agree that the devil is in the details. There is a little information on page 23 of this document:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/2012publications/CEC-600-2012-001/CEC-600-2012-001-CMF.pdf
What ever happened to Plasma Kinetic’s alternative to high pressure gas hydrogen refueling stations? Laser metal hydrides can be rehydrogenated using a microwave and a low pressure stream of hydrogen. Another option, swap out the disks with fresh ones. The advantage is, potentially cheaper than building high pressure hydrogen pumps. Another advantage over pressurized tanks, no loss of hydrogen over time if the vehicle has to sit. What is unclear about laser metal hydrides is how many times a disk can be recharged with hydrogen. Most if not all of the alternatives to high pressure hydrogen gas seem to be off of the radar right now. High pressure tanks that have to leak slightly are not an ideal solution. Granted, leak is too strong a word here.
I’ve emailed Plasma Kinetics to get the scoop, so we’ll see what happens.
“High pressure tanks that have to leak slightly are not an ideal solution”
I think you’re confused.
Liquefied hydrogen must vent to maintain temperature. Pressurized gaseous hydrogen has no such requirement.
And, BTW – the vented hydrogen can be captured and used.
It often is uneconomical to do so because it is such a small amount, but for a large fueling station storing liquefied hydrogen, capturing the vented hydrogen is definitely an option.