The UK’s first Hydrogen filling station open to the general public has been unveiled at Honda’s South Marston manufacturing facility in Swindon.

BOC has provided the hydrogen refuelling station in collaboration with Forward Swindon, Swindon Borough Council's regeneration body.  Forward Swindon was awarded a £250,000 grant from the South West England Regional Development Agency in order to build the filling station. As one of the project partners, BOC is also providing further private sector funding to the venture. The project aims to encourage Honda to research and develop new hydrogen-powered cars at its Swindon plant. Currently the FCX Clarity (Honda’s first production line fuel cell car) is only being manufactured in Japan.

The infrastructure is intended to kick-start the use of Hydrogen powered vehicles and hopefully start to build a hydrogen economy in the local area. Ian Piper, Chief Executive of Forward Swindon commented, "The automative and car-making sector is very important to Swindon, and it's important for Swindon to be at the leading edge in this way."

The filling station itself is based upon BOC’s Hydrogen Max Fueller 90 refuelling station. It can provide refuelling capability at both 350 & 700 bar and is capable of refilling 4 cars per hour.  In order to use stored pressure and compressor capacity in the most cost-efficient manner, the station has a three-bank cascade system. It consists of three pressure storage banks (buffer sections) in which the hydrogen for the refuelling is stored.*[Quotation from BOC technical specification document]

As you may have noticed from the above comments, it appears that Hydrogen is not actually produced onsite within the unit itself. So this is effectively a dispenser system which can provide hydrogen at increased pressure from storage canisters and will itself need to be periodically refilled.

Customers who use the unit will have a smart-card account and be billed for their usage. Honda have estimated that the hydrogen works out at 5p per litre equivalent cheaper than petrol. On the station’s official opening date, Tuesday 20th September, there were eight vehicles lined up for refueling including a London Taxi, a Mercedes-Benz ambulance, a London Bus, and a micro-cab. The filling station has seen wide publicity in the UK media and more is likely to follow as additional hydrogen vehicles hit the road.

Professor Kevin Kendall, a hydrogen expert from Birmingham university commented, ’Every big manufacturer is making a hydrogen car with a fuel cell. By 2015 to 2020 when it all kicks off, there will be hundreds of thousands if not millions of these around.’

You can find out more about the BOC Hydrogen Max 90 refueller on their website at: http://www.boconline.co.uk/products/products_by_application/hydrogen_refuelling.asp

For a list of other UK hydrogen refuelling stations please see our online directory at: http://www.hydrogenclub.co.uk/main/index.php/refuelling-stations

Air Products has set up a wastewater treatment plant in Orange County USA that produces hydrogen, electricity and heat from municipal wastewater. This is the first technology application of its kind in the world and seeks to lead the way with sustainable (and affordable) hydrogen production.

The facility will produce enough hydrogen to fuel between 25 and 50 fuel cells vehicles each day in addition to providing 250 kilowatts of electricity.

The process for producing the hydrogen involves holding the wastewater in tanks until methane gas is produced. This gas is then captured and reformed to make hydrogen that is pure enough to be used in fuel cell vehicles.

Probably the most interesting part about this process is that the feedstock does not necessarily have to be sewage. Air Products’ has identified a number of other potential feedstock’s such as agricultural, food, and brewery wastes and landfill gas which can make use of the same process.

Moreover, Air Products boldy states that “If all of these available streams were converted to hydrogen, it could support fueling up to 200 million fuel cell vehicles in the U.S. with hydrogen and point to sustainable energy independence.”

You can read more about this story in Air Products’ press release here.

I just noticed today that the motor expo in London will be holding a "Drive the Future" event. The expo will be taking place from the 6th-12th of June and the public can attend free of charge.

For those that don't know, Motorexpo is the world’s biggest free to visit motoring event. It features displays of the latest vehicles from the world’s leading automotive manufacturers. You can visit their website at http://www.motorexpo.com/

Quentin Wilson, who is a strong advocate of Hydrogen, will be championing the event. It will be the very first opportunity for the general public to experience all types of low carbon, high mpg, hybrid and electric vehicles in a full ride and drive facility.

In addition, I believe that ITM Power will have a live demonstration of their HFuel hydrogen refuelling unit onsite.

Here is the transcript from the interview I had in April. I thought it was worth posting just for reference purposes, as it's always interesting to look back a few years down the line and see if the predictions have actually come true!

HydroKevin: What is your vision for the hydrogen highway system that is just now starting to be built in the UK?

Andrew: My vision for the hydrogen highway system is that it will provide a benchmark for future generations of transport, just as the very first motorways did for the car. It will enable those in close proximity to  test, hire and purchase hydrogen driven vehicles, and those further afield to witness an inspiring change to the way in which we use and  store energy. Perhaps most importantly, it will prove that hydrogen is a workable solution to diminishing fossil fuel resources and environmental challenges.

HydroKevin: Who do you see as the major players in building the hydrogen highway system?

Andrew: This is an interesting question as it is shaped partly by the way in which the highway system is being funded. One example of this would be the numerous competitions held by the Technology Strategy Board (you can  visit their website at http://www.innovateuk.org/). The light-touch approach with incentives for small and medium sized technology companies is likely to bring some new competitors to the marketplace. Many of these companies are university spin-outs, meaning that they are full of  new ideas and technological innovations that have yet to reach the  mainstream.

I also see a role for the larger energy companies, but I believe that they are likely to come along much later down the line once the initial financial risks have been reduced.

At the moment my shortlist of major players would be:

•Revolve Technologies – because of their ability to retrofit existing ICE vehicles •ITM Power – because of their revolutionary HFuel unit and the reduced cost of producing hydrogen

•Air Products – because they already have a foot-hold in a number of Hydrogen projects in the UK. These include developing the hydrogen refueling infrastructure for London buses and the refueling station at Loughborough University

•Glamorgan University – because they are next to the M4 and are already investing in a hydrogen engine test facility.

HydroKevin: What is your website’s goal in delivering this news to the United Kingdom and the rest of the world?

Andrew: My website’s goal is to inspire people about how hydrogen can be used in the real world to solve many of our fuel and energy storage problems. By providing a centralised point for contacts, information and resources in the UK I hope that people will come together and promote hydrogen on a wider scale.