In part one yesterday, Steve W. talks about partnering up Pep Boys with Intergalactic Hydrogen to sell H2 conversion kits for ICE vehicles nationwide. In part 2, Steve gives more detailed plans about his vision for the hydrogen fueling station and considers ITM Power as a potential supplier of that station.
Steve W.: What I’m looking for in a hydrogen refueling station that I can present to Pep Boys, whether it be one that can be publicly accessible at Pep Boys’ automotive service centers or sold through their retail outlets for private home usage, is one designed so that it takes in rainwater from the sky, and through the electrolysis method, acquires the electricity it needs to run an electrical current through the water to produce the hydrogen, from wind and/or sun.
Such a station could give us the full assurance that no out-of-sight/out-of-mind trade-offs are occurring. It is not just a matter of making hydrogen fuel as inexpensive as possible, though I certainly hold that as a major goal, but to come up with a means of producing hydrogen that we absolutely know can be sustainable indefinitely (so long as there’s rain and sun and/or wind), and is not resulting in any sort of out-of-sight/out-of-mind harm anywhere else, whether to the natural environment or to innocent people.
Anyway, I have an image in my mind of what I want to go to Pep Boys with. But, coming up with that is the hard part. In its simplest form, in terms of the hydrogen refueling station I would like to present, I picture a large cylindrical shaped device with a large funnel on top, the latter for taking in rain water. Just underlying that funnel I picture a rotating collar with vertical blades, what can be described as a turret-style wind turbine, and of course it rotates in accordance with the speed of the wind. Right below that are two cylindrical-shaped tanks stacked atop one another.
The upper one contains the hydrogen that the device produces (since hydrogen is lighter) and the lower one contains water. The funnel at the top of the device has a narrow shaft that leads straight down to and refills the water tank at the bottom. And right around that shaft in the vicinity of the rotating collar is a smaller, collar-like generator powered by the outer collar, which in turn produces the electricity that is then run through the lower tank to produce hydrogen.
Insulted wires run from this generator down the shaft through the hydrogen tank into the water tank where the wires then feed a battery positioned in the lower tank. And from this battery there are wires running through the lower tank that are fully exposed to produce the hydrogen. And the hydrogen that is produced as a result of this then uni-directionally enters into and fills the upper tank. And attached to the upper tank is an outer hose by which hydrogen-powered vehicles can be refueled.
And rather than anything within the upper tank pressuring the hydrogen out, the hydrogen is absorbed from the upper tank by the type of onboard storage the vehicle uses. Or it could be that heat is used within the fueling station’s upper tank to release the hydrogen from the device’s upper tank through the hose to the vehicle. In that case, something would be needed to heat the device’s upper tank. And perhaps the wind generator could provide the electricity needed for that as well. But all told, as you can see, what I’m envisioning here is a little bit tricky, but not all that complicated really.
Thanks again for your link telling me of the latest breakthroughs being made by ITM, which has me now considering if it is they who I should get in touch with next regarding something I can go to Pep Boys with.
So now the question is what about ITM? Is ITM ready with anything that can begin to be mass-marketed and that I can go to Pep Boys with? ITM seems to have really made tremendous strides with developing hydrogen fueling stations ready for this. But what about when it comes to training Pep Boys’ mechanics to convert vehicles so that they can run on hydrogen? For without cars that can run on hydrogen, what good are the hydrogen refueling stations?
But, I could picture, if the service were to suddenly be offered at the mass-market level, millions of Americans taking their existing vehicles to wherever they could to have them altered so that they could run on hydrogen, so long as they can be assured of having ready access to hydrogen fuel. And, of course, if they can have the assurance that it’s not just a passing fad.
Many thanks to Steve W., the H2Revolutionary for taking the time to email me his detailed plan including his past contacts with Pep Boys, Intergalactic Hydrogen and the oil companies and his attempts to get the ball rolling in regard to H2 conversion kits for everyone who wants one. It is through these grassroots efforts that the hard work will be done before enough idea bulbs pop above the top level executives’ heads who make the decisions to make a big and bold move regarding the hydrogen marketplace.
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