Shell brings H2 fueling stations to NYC

Shell brings H2 fueling stations to NYC
by Sebastian Blanco on Jul 14th 2009 at 7:56PM


Does Shell know something about the DOE's hydrogen funding plans that others don't? Or did it forget that the Shell CEO said recently that biofuels are the future? Whatever's going in internally, the energy giant is moving forward with plans to open a series of hydrogen refueling stations in New York. Today, the company opened a second NYC station – at JFK international airport – and will break the seal on another, this one in the Bronx, later this month. An H2 station in White Plains has been open since April 2008. Shell calls it their "first cluster of hydrogen filling stations," and the stations are all about 30 miles apart. The new JFK location can be used by "agreed vehicles only."

Last year, Shell opened a combined hydrogen and gasoline refueling station in Los Angeles (pictured) and also operates stations in Tokyo, Reykjavik, Shanghai, Washington, D.C. and New York..

[Source: Shell via Green Car Congress, GM]

GM Welcomes Shell Hydrogen Station Opening at JFK

Creates First Cluster of Hydrogen filling stations

JAMAICA, New York - Shell today opened its second hydrogen filling station in the greater New York City area, providing improved access to hydrogen for drivers of fuel cell Chevrolet Equinoxes participating in Project Driveway.

Project Driveway selects consumers who sign up on the Internet in the greater New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. to participate for two months at a time in the demonstration. Chevy.com/fuelsolutions

Shell will open a third third station this summer in the Bronx in conjunction with the New York City Department of Sanitation.

Shell hydrogen station in White Plains has been operating there for more than a year, making up Shell's first cluster of hydrogen filling stations.

The station opening Tuesday at JFK International Airport is a partnership between Shell, General Motors Co., the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the US Department of Energy.

"These partnerships are critical to building the infrastructure that will make hydrogen a relevant alternative fuel in the future as well as a key to the ongoing success of Project Driveway," said Larry Burns, GM vice president of R&D and Strategic Planning.

The cluster of stations that will provide New York drivers of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles with greater flexibility and convenience is a significant step on from stand-alone, demonstration stations and is part of Shell's strategy to build expertise in the distribution and dispensing of hydrogen.

"The prospects for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are strong in the longer-term", said Duncan Macleod, Shell vice president of Hydrogen. "This first cluster is an important step as we continue to build capability in retailing hydrogen fuel, in line with the auto makers' plans to develop hydrogen vehicles."

About General Motors: General Motors Company, one of the world's largest automakers, traces its roots back to 1908. With its global headquarters in Detroit, GM employs 235,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in some 140 countries. GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 34 countries, and sell and service these vehicles through the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM's largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Germany. GM's OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. General Motors Company acquired operations from General Motors Corporation on July 10, 2009, and references to prior periods in this and other press materials refer to operations of the old General Motors Corporation. More information on the new General Motors Company can be found at www.gm.com.
Tags: hydrogen, hydrogen new york, hydrogen nyc, HydrogenNewYork, HydrogenNyc, shell, shell hydrogen, shell new york, ShellHydrogen, ShellNewYork

(43)Share
.
Related Articles From Autoblog Green

Financial crisis delays Iceland's hydrogen transportation project
19 days ago

Baden-Württemberg, Germany gets its first public hydrogen filling station
31 days ago

CARB grants $6.8 billion for four hydrogen refueling stations
103 days ago

Related Articles From Autoblog

Early obits attempt to analyze, make sense of General Motors bankruptcy
49 days ago

Malcolm Bricklin has hydrogen visions for displaced Chrysler and GM dealers...
53 days ago

Port Authority skittish over BMW Hydrogen 7
360 days ago

See More Related Articles and Blog Posts
.Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

1km
8:43PM (7/14/2009)
What the greater NYC area needs is natural gas stations not Hydrogen...

Reply
↓↑report2jjpro
12:05PM (7/15/2009)
I say, way to go GM & Shell. This program is very much needed. Hydrogen & fuel cells are an important component of the portfolio of technologies that will address our environmental concerns. Hydrogen used in a fuel-cell drivetrain is efficient: it is 3 times more efficient than the gasoline car you are now driving! Large trucks are not going to run on batteries alone anytime soon; they can on hydrogen. I will take my hydrogen car that can go 350 miles and refuel in 5 minutes over my battery-only car that can only go 100 miles and needs 8 hours to recharge.


↓↑report3Patrick
4:59PM (7/15/2009)
This is a very positive step for alternative fuels. Nice job GM and Shell to provide some leadership in another important metro area outside of LA!

These few stations will allow the people already driving hydrogen vehicles in the area to have more convenient fueling and to drive their emission-free fuel cell electric vehicles all over the NYC area.


↓↑report4ShaunneyCakes
8:52PM (7/14/2009)
Uh oh, here comes the stampede of Anti-Hydrogen Eco-Snob posts!

Reply
↓↑report5BillySharps
9:18PM (7/14/2009)
There are good reasons to oppose hydrogen. I'm not sure why that's snobbery.


↓↑report6ShaunneyCakes
9:52PM (7/14/2009)
@BillySharps

There are good reasons to oppose EVERY technology. Even EVs and Plug In Hybrids has many "good" reasons to oppose them. What makes someone a snob is they ignore all the good things because they prefer an alternative technology. I prefer EV's, but hydrogen has a lot of potential as well.


↓↑report7fnc
10:12PM (7/14/2009)
Considering the energy ROI of various ways to generate electricity makes one a snob?


↓↑report8jpm
2:04AM (7/15/2009)
stfu moron


↓↑report9guyledouche
8:58AM (7/15/2009)
Hey ShaunnyCakes,

You say tomato, I say tomaaato.

You call us "anti-hydrogen eco snobs", I call us informed, logical, intelligent, green vehicle tech advocates.

I, along with many other folks on this site, am no more an advocate of EV's as I am an advocate of CNG vehicles.

CNG makes a hell of a lot more sense as an interim fuel source in ICE cars and trucks than Hydrogen ever will, from every aspect. I am not going to go into detail about why H2 does not make sense because that horse has been beaten to death multiple times on this site as of late. It is getting old. The bottom line is that it doesn't make sense and the sooner you and guys like Glen Blencoe get that thru your thick skulls, the better. Do you think people promote EV's and CNG vehicles here because they are paid by some underground organization to pump our wares? NO Sherlocke, its because the aforementioned technologies make sense, work, can be made affordable, can be fairly easily adopted into our CURRENT refueling infrastructure, whether at home or at a station, and can and will be adopted my the US populous.

If anything, you are truly the closed-minded eco-snob here, promoting and defending one of the biggest wastes of time and money we have ever seen in green vehicle technology. H2 is a joke and just another way for large oil companies to keep a stronghold on our wallets. Enough is enough, we need to do things that make sense and not just listen to what ever you hear on the news.

EV's and CNG are the only CURRENT technologies that make sense and should be promoted as an alternative to petrol. H2 is a joke. Even our corrupt, oil industry funded government has seen the light at the end of the tunnel and slashed their spending on H2. To me, that means a lot! For them to make that kind of a move should make it very obvious to folks like you and Blencoe, that H2 is a waste of time and money.

Feel free to bash my comments, but I think I and others on this site make very good points to support these arguments.


↓↑report10gorr
10:42AM (7/15/2009)
Natural gas is the easiest green technology. If there is not available anywhere it's because goverment folks need to study how to suffocate the peoples like hitler did with the jews. Look at the career of al gore and g.w.b , they propose greenery tech all the time but it's just for public relations, on the real table only destructive gasoline and diesel are sold. It's them that constructed this petrol business worldwide and they are still protecting it and promoting it with goverment money. All their talks is to erase your awareness. All the greenery tech if we listen to them is coming soon, but strangelly they cannot recognise any green tech at all and despite billions of dollars of taxmoney given to many crooks, not a single greenery is on the market.


↓↑report11Patrick
4:59PM (7/15/2009)
Way to call it ShaunnyCakes. As predictable as a metronome. You're right of course. Hydrogen has a lot of potential. And so do other technologies.

That's why we need to be so open-minded to a variety of good technologies and help them all to market. Once they get to market (probably at different times), we can let the market decide which kinds of vehicles will be purchased.


↓↑report12Yanquetino
9:04PM (7/14/2009)
Questions:

* How many fuel cell "agreed vehicles" are there in the NY area?

* Who makes those FCVs and who drives them?

* Any idea how much one of these "agreed vehicles" costs?

* Since Shell opened this new station at the JFK airport, does this mean that some select rental car agencies will be renting them to travelers?

* How much is this new fueling station charging for the H2?

* Where is it getting its H2 from?

* How is it produced?

* How is it transferred and stored there?

* What is the maximum psi that the station can put into a vehicle's tanks?

* How long does a "fillup" take at that psi?

Thanks!

Reply
↓↑report13j
9:27PM (7/14/2009)
so they opened a covered parking lot?

Reply
↓↑report14Earthplane
9:46PM (7/14/2009)
Some followup questions! Did Shell fund these H2 facilities, or are they subsidized by Project Driveway or by GM, or maybe by DOE? If they just did it as part of a demonstration program, they get no credit for that - they have no risk. End of program, end of facility.

It's not for public use, only for participating vehicles, but still, what is Shell charging for the refueling, on a weight or gge basis? Of course, none of these H2 facilities will even approach economic feasibility at this point, but participating drivers should be expected to pay something toward the fuel they're using as part of the program.

Interesting story, how about more information from our writer?

Reply
↓↑report15PopSmith
12:47AM (7/15/2009)
I have these questions as well. If Shell put out the money for this station with no "help" from the government that is interesting and shows they are serious about it in my opinion. However, if Exxon and other oil companies jump on the Hydrogen bandwagon that means that eventual price fixing/price hikes such as what we have seen with gasoline is inevitable.

On the topic of Hydrogen, and please correct me if I am wrong, it is mainly generated (at least in America) from natural gas via natural gas reforming. This process separates methane (CH4) from natural gas which is then further separated so the Hydrogen can be used.

From energy.gov:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/production/natural_gas.html

In steam-methane reforming, methane reacts with steam under 3–25 bar pressure (1 bar = 14.5 psi) in the presence of a catalyst to produce hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and a relatively small amount of carbon dioxide.

This means that carbon monoxide (CO) is still being emitted, in ever-increasing numbers if Hydrogen takes off, and in the end the Hydrogen is ran though a fuel cell that combines Hydrogen with Oxygen making H2O (aka water) which then charges a battery to power the car.

I am not against Hydrogen, I think the idea is great but I prefer a pure-electric car. If the Hydrogen is used to charge a battery that means that, in the end, the car is an electric-hybrid that has had it's gasoline engine replaced with a Hydrogen generator.

For cars that need to go on road-trips that might be a good idea. However, for an "everyday driver" I still believe an all-electric vehicle would be a better choice.

↓↑report16Chris M
12:45AM (7/16/2009)
You got it almost right, PopSmith. A 2nd phase of that steam reforming process takes that carbon monoxide and reacts it with more steam at higher temperatures to get more H2 and CO2. It is necessary to remove carbon monoxide from the H2 fuel, as it can damage some types of fuel cells.

Most H2 production is from steam reformed fossil fuels, and the "Hydrogen Hyway" plans call for most of the H2 to be produced that way, as that is the cheapest source. The few H2 fuel stations using electrolysis are demo units for promotional use.

↓↑report17murc
10:35PM (7/14/2009)
Its obvious now, with electric cars coming fast....the hydrogen makers are realizing that the time for hydrogen is now or never...and they dont want to concede that all of the millions they sunk into hydrogen research wasn't wasted......but the truth is, it was.

Reply
↓↑report18Nozferat
4:17AM (7/15/2009)
Not really. It would be a mistake for them to do that when the technology out there hasn't fully matured. Same goes for EVs. Anyone pitching a cheap EV today that will do what a petrol car can do is committing suicide.

This shouldn't be a race. It should be a union of technologies.


↓↑report19Patrick
4:54PM (7/15/2009)
Guess where the most advanced automotive electric motors, batteries and controllers can be found on the road today? In hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cells and batteries all work together.

↓↑report20Serge
5:22PM (7/15/2009)
Patrick, I believe you are mistaken. Those items you've mentioned can be found in a Tesla Roadster. It does not have a fuel cell.

There are more comments, and as usual, the comments are frequently more informative than the original article. I find it interesting that the federal government put fuel cells on the back burner and the oil companies are pushing it ! Fuel cells have been a great technology for at least the past ten years, and have potential, but arent close to being ready for production. Perhaps if people believe that fuel cells are right around the corner they will wait on buying a hybrid, plug-in, or electric vehicle. T Boone Pickens is pushing natural gas vehicles and trucks, with power from wind farms.