September 2004

E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version DaimlerChrysler’s Mark Chernoby, Vice President of Advanced Vehicle Engineering (left), AQMD Board Member Cynthia Verdugo-Peralta, and CalEPA Secretary Terry Tamminen “Hydrogen Up” a DaimlerChrysler F-Cell at the grand opening of AQMD’s Hydrogen Fueling Station in Diamond Bar. The station is Southern California’s first official link in Governor Schwarzennegers Hydrogen Highway.

DIAMOND BAR, CA - Highlighting international interest in California’s clean air activities, diplomats from a dozen countries along with area officials were on hand to witness the formal opening here of one of the first hydrogen fueling stations open to the public in California last month.

The fueling station, built by Canada’s Stuart Energy, is located at the headquarters of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD). It is among the first of 13 hydrogen stations the agency is co-funding that are to be built in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties (H&FCL June 02, June 04). They will become part of the ambitious 200-station California Hydrogen Highway program championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (H&FCL Jan., May 04).

Air Products, meanwhile, announced its fueling technology has been selected for three other demonstration projects - two of them in collaboration with Proton Energy Systems, Inc. - slated for completion by AQMD next year in the Los Angeles Basin in Burbank, Riverside and Santa Ana.

CalEPA’s Tamminen Does the Honors

Terry Tamminen, the secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, lent a hand at the Diamond Bar festivities by fueling a DaimlerChrysler F-Cell fuel cell car - the German carmaker’s first fuel cell vehicle delivered to a California customer - followed at the pump in quick order by fuel cell vehicles from Honda and Toyota.

“The world is running out of oil,” Tamminen told the 150 attendees, according to a story in an area paper, the “Pasadena Star-News.” “It’s driving foreign policy in the wrong direction. Hydrogen is the way to solve the problem.”

The foreign dignitaries tended to agree. “Europe is very much interested in this technology,” said one, the Netherland’s Consul General, David A.H. van Iterson, according to the “Star News” story. Iterson said he came to gain insights into the air quality and fuel problems in California and how they are relevant to the rest of the world.

The hydrogen fueling station took six months to install. It is part of a variety of clean air technology projects at the agency, including upgraded natural gas infrastructure components, research and demonstration of advanced engine development, electric hybrid vehicles, stationary power combustion processes and other clean fuel alternatives efforts at AQMD.

24 kg of Hydrogen per Day

The Stuart Energy Station generates 12 N cu. m. of hydrogen gas, or 24 kg per day, enough for a small fleet of vehicles. The station can store 60 kg of hydrogen, and fuel is dispensed at 400 bar (6000 psi). For the time being, the electrolysis and storage equipment are powered by electricity from the grid plus electricity from existing solar arrays, installed some time ago to help meet the power needs of AQMD’s headquarters building.

Still to come from Stuart is a 120 kW power module with a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine which has just been ordered, a component essential for backup power during grid outages to make the entire system self sufficient.

In its announcement, Air Products said it will be be working together with Proton Energy Systems which will be supplying its HOGEN PEM electrolyzers. They will be powered by Burbank’s and Riverside’s city-owned electric utilities. Air Products’s Series 200 vehicle fueling system will provide storage and dispensing equipment.

In Santa Ana, a mobile Air Products H-150 fueler will be deployed. Air Products will provide fueling process and safety training in all three locations. Contacts: AQMD, Tina Cherry, 909/396-3456; Stuart, Wanda Cutler, 905/282-7769; Air Products, Art George, 610/481-1340.