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California Drivers Can Tank Up WIth Hydrogen

Posted by timothy on from the loading-the-dice dept.

Country_hacker writes "News site TBO.com is reporting ChevronTexaco has opened a hydrogen fuel station in Chino, California, and has plans to open five more. Servicing three (or more) Hyundai SUVs, these prototype fueling stations are a part of a five-year cost-sharing program put on by the Department of Energy. Could this be the 'egg' in the alternate fuels 'chicken or egg?' scenario?"

5 of 462 comments (clear)

  1. Slackers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    We've had hydrogen refueling in Washington, DC for months.

  2. Re:And safer too by Sensible+Clod · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, they've gone to some real trouble to make carbon-fiber-reinforced tanks that are *very* hard to bust. I've seen the test footage, and when they finally did manage to bust one (which was no mean feat), it slowly leaked the hydrogen out. What is more, when they ignited the leaking hydrogen, it just burned, Just Like Gasoline; it did not explode.

    Incidentally, leaking H2 is somewhat safer than leaking gasoline, because it tends to float up and away instead of accumulate in a growing pool on the ground.

    --

    The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
  3. Re:It's not for public use by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've read some articles that say corn-based ethanol is pretty much a scam to raise the demand for (and price of) corn. Apparently producing corn ethanol requires a shit ton of energy and fossil fuels. People are tripping over themselves to create "clean" and "renewable" energy, but they're losing sight of the big picture and the laws of physics.

    I'm not going to find a site because it's late.

    -B

  4. Re:At this stage... by diablomonic · · Score: 5, Informative
    FIRST: you assume 10 percent efficiency, whereas average decent cells nowadays are more like 20 with good ones around 30

    NEXT you assume only one square metre of solar cell space.... how big is your house? mine is around 8*20 metres = 160 m^2

    SO if you take my house as an example, you are looking at 160m^2 * 200w (say)per m^2 * 8 decent sunlight hours per day = about 250 KWhours per day IF i cover my entire roof with panels, plenty to power multiple cars and the house and the neighbours house etc etc.

    THE only problem with this scenario? due to a lack of widespread investment in solar technology, as opposed to oil or other fossil fuels, solar cells still cost about 5 bucks a watt, so your looking at an upfront investment of about 160 grand to cover my roof in panels. Now obviously i dont quite need that much power, but either way itll be a fair whack of money at current prices (otherwise i wouldve done it long ago). Hopefully some of the new thinner solar technologies coming out soon (within a year or two) will lower prices to a more reasonable level.

    --
    watch "the money masters" on google video
  5. Here in Sydney by mpesce · · Score: 5, Informative

    CNG is available in the vast majority of service stations. It blew me away when I first got here - being an American, I had no idea it was in widespread use.

    Good points:
    - It's a lot cheaper than gasoline, about .40 AUD per liter vs. 1 AUD for gasoline (and Australia has some of the lower gas prices in the world)
    - A liter of CNG gets you (just about) as far as a liter of gasoline
    - It's less polluting

    Most of the Sydney-area taxis use CNG for precisely this reason. The one person I know who owns a CNG-fueled automobile for personal use has a brother-in-law who owns a taxi company, so he got a stock vehicle, and had it painted (Sydney taxis are white)... He loves it.