GM and The Gas Company, based in Hawaii, have announced an initiative that will provide hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles that the automaker plans to roll out there as soon as 2015.
The Gas Company currently converts waste products from petroleum refining into methane, hydrogen, and some liquid fuels, and pumps these gases around Oahu in a pipeline. About five percent of that gas stream is hydrogen. The new initiative will see the company install devices that can separate that hydrogen at fueling stations, and pump it into the pressurized tanks that store the gas on board GM’s vehicles. The devices cost about a quarter as much as installing a new hydrogen fueling station, the company says.
The new approach is meant to address one of the biggest challenges with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles: the lack of widespread infrastructure for refueling. In some ways, Hawaii is the ideal place to start using these vehicles widely, since you only need a couple dozen fueling stations for the whole island of Oahu. The new approach could also be environmentally friendly, especially if The Gas Company follows through with its plans to make hydrogen out of plant and animal oils, and to capture it from landfills.
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