In November 2009, I had talked about how the first of the 20 BC Transit hydrogen fuel cell buses were arriving in Whistler, British Columbia in time for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The 20 BC Transit hydrogen buses, powered by Ballard fuel cells, are the largest single bus fleet anywhere. Besides being zero emissions vehicles, the BC hydrogen buses have a range of over 300 miles and can be refueled in 8 to 10 minutes. Air Liquide will be supplying the compressed hydrogen gas for refueling.

Once the Olympics are over with the buses will continue to be part of the BC Canada Hydrogen Highway system, which is part of the West Coast hydrogen highway system that is being built from Whistler, BC all the way down the coast to around the San Diego area.

The 2009 Hydrogen Road Tour that took place this past summer featured a procession of hydrogen cars traveling from Chula Vista, CA (south of San Diego) to Vancouver, BC with many stops at H2 fueling stations along the way.

Joining the 20 BC Transit H2 buses at the Olympics will be a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid bus from the University of South Carolina and a fleet of Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicles. The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics will begin this Friday, February 12, 2010.

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There has been a lot of development and commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell forklifts over the past couple of years. I’ve talked about FCV forklifts in the U. S. food industry, including Coca-Cola and FCV forklifts for Walmart. Outside the U. S. I’ve talked about fuel cell forklifts in Scandinavia and Germany.

This past summer I had talked about the H2 Mobility plan for Germany in which eight large companies had signed onto in order to rollout enough H2 fueling stations for the commercialization of hydrogen vehicles by 2015.

One of the companies that had signed on to this agreement for Germany to become a hydrogen transportation corridor is Daimler which is producing 200 FCVs in the next couple of years with aims at commercialization by 2015.

Another of these eight companies is Linde, which is not only a major supplier of hydrogen gas in Germany but is also now in the business of building H2 forklifts. The forklifts or “trucks” as they are being called are replacing two diesel forklifts at the Linde plant.

The fuel cell forklifts are being used to haul compressed gas tanks between warehouses and trucking points. Now, granted, hydrogen fuel cell forklifts may not be as sexy as hydrogen cars, but they are practical, economical, environmentally friendly and being commercialized now.

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Proton Power Systems and Smith Electric Vehicles have teamed up to produce an electric car with fuel cell range extender. This terminology will most likely go over better with battery electric vehicle fans than the term hydrogen fuel cell hybrid vehicle.

Most likely the term electric car with fuel cell range extender was chosen because the electric car without the range extender has a range of about 100 miles. By adding the Proton Power PM200 fuel cell the car picks up another 86 miles in range. Had those numbers been swapped, however we’d most likely be calling this a fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle.

The first commercial EV with FC range extender will be rolled out in Germany in the last quarter of 2010. The first customers will be fleet operators and local authorities. It makes sense that the first vehicles would rollout in Germany which is part of the European Union Hydrogen Highway system.

Germany, which has an area of 137,000 square miles has 30 hydrogen fueling stations in place with a commitment to the acceleration in building more H2 stations over the next 5 years. By comparison, California has an area of 164,000 square miles and has 27 hydrogen fueling stations operational, but not all are open to the public.

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This is a little futuristic and still in the concept phase but I’d like to talk about it since it ranks high on my “coolness” gauge. A British design company called Seymourpowell was commissioned by Samsung Construction and Trading (C&T) to come up with a futuristic design for hydrogen powered air travel.

The Seymourpowell Aircruise is the result of this futuristic thinking. The idea behind the Seymourpowell Aircruise Concept is that it will be a floating luxury hotel that is over 800 feet tall and will float like a large balloon over cityscapes or dramatic landscapes like the watching of the migration of the wildebeests in Kenya. An ocean trip from New York to London would take 37 hours.

The Seymourpowell Aircruise would accept up to 100 guests, and 10 luxury apartments would be up for grabs. The photos on this page do not do the Seymourpowell Aircruise concept justice so here’s a video on the vision.

Now, I don’t want any hydrogen haters helping to harbor comparisons to the Hindenburg here. The Seymourpowell Aircruise will above all be safe. Hydrogen gas will provide the lift. The airship will also be powered by solar energy plus several hydrogen fuel cells which will provide not only the motivation but also safe drinking water for the customers.

This serene type of air travel will include large spaces within the craft for dining, lounging and a bar for entertainment. The crew at Seymourpowell anticipate that the Aircruise hotel could be ready as early as 2015 if the project is a go. This may be a bit pie-in-the-sky as far as how future hydrogen travel may go. Then again, perhaps the sky is the limit and we are only limited by our current imaginations.

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It’s Groundhog’s Day, again. And as a sign of the times, the famous Punxsutawney Phil stepped out of his burrow, saw his shadow and apparently text messaged all of this friends that there will be six more weeks of winter.

Now, just as Phil text messaging all of his friends doesn’t seem to go together, neither does electricity and hydrogen. But, this is what researchers in Virginia and China are proposing.

Scientists at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), the Chinese Academy of Science in Shanghai and Peking University in Beijing are proposing the use of an outside electrical field to contain hydrogen molecules efficiently and reversibly at ambient temperatures.

According to Puru Jena, Ph.D at VCU, “Using an external electric field as another variable in our search for such a material will bring a hydrogen economy closer to reality. This is a paradigm shift in the approach to store hydrogen. Thus far, the efforts have been on how to modify the composition of the storage material. Here we show that an applied electric field can do the same thing as doped metal ions.”

Right now there has been much research on metal hydride storage. Hydrogen clings to the metal at low pressures and ambient temperatures because of a weak electrical charge that bonds the molecules. The new proposal says that a weak electrical charge can be applied from the outside to “contain” the hydrogen inside some sort of fueling tank and when the electricity is shut off the hydrogen is released for the vehicle to use.

Now, this may seem counterintuitive to many, who think that hydrogen and electricity go together about as well as a flame and gasoline. But, the scientists aren’t talking about a spark to ignite the H2 fuel but rather charge polarization at the molecular level.

Like I’ve stated before it is this kind of outside-the-box thinking we will need in order to solve the issues, getting in the way of rolling out a full-fledged hydrogen transportation system in the near future.

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ACAL Energy is attempting to do what few others have managed which is to eliminate the expensive platinum used on the cathode of its hydrogen fuel cell. Instead the ACAL FlowCath uses a durable liquid chemical cathode in its hydrogen FC. This reduces the platinum content by 80-percent overall in the fuel cell.

Besides this one step making the fuel cell less expensive and just as durable as a platinum based FC, ACAL Energy is also taking other measures to make their device more ready for commercialization, “The technology also inherently addresses the balance of plant costs by eliminating the need for hydration, pressurization, separate cooling and other expensive mechanical sub-systems commonly found in conventional PEM fuel cells.”

ACAL is intending for their fuel cell to first go online in the second half of 2010 supplying continuous electric power at a chemical manufacturing plant in the UK. When the field testing succeeds, ACAL sees its FlowCath fuel cell capable of replacing gasoline and diesel engines in both the stationary fuel cell market and in the transportation sectors.

ACAL will exhibit their new fuel cell in early March at the FC EXPO in Tokyo, Japan. Besides speaking at the conferences, ACAL will have representatives at their both speaking in both English and Japanese.

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A Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) hydrogen train (hydrail) rolled into Southern California this week to meet Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The hydrail locomotive is powered by hydrogen fuel cell plus hybrid technology.

Now, it’s a sign of the times when Governor Schwarzenegger tweeted about his experience on Twitter. The H2 locomotive is a switch locomotive that moves other trains short distances around the rail yard.

The BNSF hydrogen train is seen as a clean alternative to those currently powered by diesel engines. In January 2008, I had talked about how BNSF was developing an H2 switch train in Kansas along with its partner Vehicle Projects LLC.

In October 2006, I had also talked about how JR East was developing the world’s first hydrogen powered commuter train in Japan. The BNSF hydrogen hybrid train is a welcome alternative to areas known for their poor air quality.

So, in the future you may not hear the rumble of a diesel engine and the belch of black smoke on the tracks, but rather the quiet hum of a hydrogen fuel cell and a little cleaner air surrounding it.

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Two weeks ago Proton Energy Systems and SunHydro announced plans to build a public hydrogen fueling station in Wallingford, Connecticut. This week SunHydro announced the plans to build an East Coast Hydrogen Highway system.

Presumably this would exclude other companies that build hydrogen fueling stations since 4 operational hydrogen fueling stations in New York, and 1 operational hydrogen fueling station in Washington DC is excluded from the plan they’ve mapped out.

The SunHydro East Coast Hydrogen Highway system is supposed to start in Portland, Maine and end in Miami, Florida. The other cities along the route include Braintree, MA, Wallingford, CT, S. Hackensack, NJ, Claymont, DE, Richmond, VA, Charlotte, NC, Atlanta, GA, Savannah, GA and Orlando, FL.

The SunHydro fueling stations will be powered by solar energy and will create hydrogen by the electrolysis of water. This is much greener than some other H2 stations that reform natural gas to create hydrogen.

According to Mapquest, the distance between Portland, ME and Miami, FL (not considering the locations of the H2 stations in-between) is 1610.72 miles. This would mean on average the 11 fueling stations would be 145 miles apart, well within the range of most hydrogen cars. I didn’t chart every leg of this journey so there will be some variation.

But, at least H2 cars like the Honda FCX Clarity with a range of 240 miles and the Toyota FCHV Adv with a range of well over 400 miles will have no problem with this route. Building an East Coast Hydrogen Highway system is well overdue. The West Coast has already taken a big lead in this arena. But, it’s good to see a company like SunHydro stepping up to make this happen.

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Today Honda is beginning operation of its new Solar Hydrogen Station at its headquarters in Torrance, California. The new Honda Solar Hydrogen Station replaces the Honda Home Energy Station IV.

Back in November 2007, I had talked about the Honda Home Energy Station IV (which was in collaboration with Plug Power Inc.) as a piece of promising technology that would put consumers in control of their own refueling by putting a hydrogen station right in their own garages. In fact, Honda isn’t the only company developing home hydrogen fueling stations as there are a few others such as ITM Power.

Honda compares the new station to the old, “The previous solar hydrogen station system required both an electrolyzer and a separate compressor unit to create high pressure hydrogen. The compressor was the largest and most expensive component and reduced system efficiency. By creating a new high differential pressure electrolyzer, Honda engineers were able to eliminate the compressor entirely – a world’s first for a home use system. This innovation also reduces the size of other key components to make the new station the world’s most compact system, while improving system efficiency by more than 25-percent (value calculated based on simulations) compared to the solar hydrogen station system it replaces.”

But, even though the Honda Solar Hydrogen Station name implies that photovoltaic power is to be used to create H2, the device can also use “smart grid” technology from the electric company during off-peak hours for minimal cost. During the daytime, the Honda Solar Hydrogen Station can even sell electricity back to the grid.

The idea behind the Honda Solar Hydrogen Station is to complement fast filling public H2 refueling stations and not compete with them. The Honda Solar Hydrogen Station does not store hydrogen, but creates it on demand and thus is considered a slow filling (overnight) means of refueling one’s fuel cell vehicle.

One might find parallels between slow fueling a hydrogen car and trickle charging an electric vehicle overnight, but there is a significant difference with the Honda Solar Hydrogen Station. The Honda device can also be used as a power station to supply electricity to one’s home as well as refuel the car and the H2 car will have a longer range.

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Okay, I’ll admit this is a stretch from the usual talk about hydrogen cars and vehicles. Let’s chalk this one up to “hydrogen transportation” or at least “hydrogen assisted transportation”.

In the past, I’ve talked about the Honda ASIMO robot powered by fuel cell and a bionic arm powered by hydrogen peroxide. So, now when I’m talking about powering the military’s new HULC robotic exoskeleton with hydrogen fuel cell instead of lithium ion batteries it isn’t quite as big of a stretch as it may at first seem.

This becomes quite obvious once you watch this video of the un-tethered hydraulic-powered anthropomorphic exoskeleton that a soldier straps onto his back, legs and feet that will help him run faster (7mph – 10mph) for long distances, carrying a 200 lb payload on his back.

The hydrogen fuel cell supplies power to the hydraulics which assists soldiers in running and using equipment (such as for communications) they are packing for up to 72 hours, far exceeding the energy that lithium ion batteries provide and at less weight.

Popular Mechanics even weighs in on the comparison of the science behind the development of the U. S. military exoskeleton suits and those used in the movie, Avatar. Lockheed Martin has chosen the Protonex Technology Corporation to develop the HULC robotic exoskeleton for the U. S. military.

Once again, science fiction is becoming science and hydrogen-powered transportation is being commercialized and may become mainstream in a very short timeframe in the future.

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