The Hydrogen Road Tour
Wednesday August 13, 2008
This past Monday, a cavalcade of hydrogen powered vehicles set off from Portland, Maine on what has been dubbed, "The Hydrogen Road Tour." Sponsored by The California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP), U S. Department of Transportation, U.S Department of Energy and the National Hydrogen Association, the caravan is expected to reach Santa Monica, California on August 23, 2008.With the goal of showcasing the progress made by both industry and government in commercializing hydrogen as a transportation "fuel," vehicles from BMW, Daimler, Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen are participating. In addition, worldwide hydrogen producers, Air Products and Chemicals Inc. and Linde Group, have a presence.
Most of the vehicles in the convoy will be fuel cell powered with the lone exception being the BMW Hydrogen 7 which uses an internal combustion engine engineered to run exclusively on hydrogen (though they do offer a bi-fuel gasoline/hydrogen version as well). Many of the fleet's fueling stops will occur in major metropolitan areas that together compose a large number of the 61 current hydrogen fueling stations across America. Supplemental fueling will be provided by mobile stations managed and serviced by Air Products and Linde. According to a CaFCP press release, Catherine Dunwoody, the organization's executive director, said "Bringing these vehicles to market requires continued commitment from government and industry. Building convenient, accessible hydrogen stations is crucial in the next five years."
We're happy and excited to see this cross-country tour take place. We've long been big proponents of hydrogen powered transportation, and it's great to see the hardware and equipment out for public display. As is so true with any new/unknown technology, awareness and education are of paramount importance.
Hydrogen refueling process © BMW
Comments
We all need to say “Yes!” to hydrogen… and quickly! It’ll be extremely important to the recovery of our flagging North American economies. It’s also the only yet-known energy-currency that would offer any hope of keeping the commercial airlines flying, longer-term.
If you haven’t yet, please acquire and read Dr. David Sanborn Scott’s new book “Smelling Land”. He makes a compelling argument that we must focus on hydrogen, in combination with electricity, as being the world’s primary way forward. But we must hurry!
Climate change is upon us; scientific evidence of that is now virtually everywhere. Let’s steer away from dabbling with the other, experimental energy alternates and come to an agreement that a hydrogen continent-wide infrastructure — state subsidized if necessary — is our next major priority.