New York on the Leading Edge of Hydrogen Fuel Station Infrastructure

Hydrogen fuel station at JFK Airport. Photo courtesy of Reuters.

For people in the New York City area that think about buying a hydrogen fuel vehicle, but don’t because of deterrents like limited places to refuel, here’s some news that might interest you.

Working on providing more fueling infrastructure for these vehicles, Shell Hydrogen in its continuing partnership with General Motors just opened up a hydrogen fuel station at the JFK Airport, and is planning to open up one more in the Bronx this month.

With the opening of another station in White Plans last year, Shell announced that this creates “the first metropolitan cluster of stations anywhere in the world to power hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.” These three stations will be about 30 miles from each other.

All three New York stations will only provide hydrogen fuel, in contrast to stations in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C, which provide hydrogen, gasoline, and diesel fuel.

The fuel dispensers at the new JFK station will provide hydrogen at both 350 bar and 700 bar pressure, and the Bronx station will provide hydrogen at 700 bar pressure. Bars refer to the pressure that the gaseous hydrogen is at when filling a vehicle’s tank.

Jill Davis, U.S. Downstream Media Relations Manager at Shell said that “700 bar is the preferred choice of automakers, and 350 bar gives added flexibility at the JFK site.”

Beyond that, Ms. Davis explained some of the technical aspects of hydrogen fueling, saying that, “Some hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are designed for 350 bar pressure and others for 700 bar (or twice as much). Three hundred fifity bar is about 5,000 psi (pounds per square inch) and 700 bar is around 10,000 psi.

“If you have a 700 bar vehicle, you can fill it at a 350 bar dispenser, but your tank will only hold half as much fuel as it would if filled at a 700 bar dispenser, so it would be like filling your tank half-way. A 350 bar vehicle cannot be filled with hydrogen at 700 bar pressure.”

All of the fuel stations can be used by the public, though the White Plains facility is currently mostly used by General Motors fuel cell vehicles driven by city employees, according to Ms. Davis.

Diagram of the fuel cell and hydrogen tanks in the Chevy Equinox. Courtesy of: General Motors.

Larry Burns, GM vice president of R&D and Strategic Planning, expressed enthusiastic expectation that the cluster of stations would provide “improved access to hydrogen for drivers of fuel cell Chevrolet Equinoxes participating in Project Driveway.”

In early 2008, Chevy launched a test fleet of hydrogen-powered Equinox fuel cell vehicles. This fleet hit the streets of New York City, Washington, D.C., and Southern California. Project Driveway is a large-scale market test of these vehicles with consumer drivers in the real world.

Project Driveway is still selecting from consumers who sign up on the internet in the greater New York area, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., to participate for two months at a time in the demonstration.

Reader commentary and input is always welcomed!