BP is to collaborate with DaimlerChrysler in field-testing fuel cell vehicles in ...

BP is to collaborate with DaimlerChrysler in field-testing fuel cell vehicles in the US beginning this year. The vehicle test programme is part of a five-year ‘Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project’, funded in part by US DoE. The project is designed to gain real-world experience with fuel cell vehicles, to address related issues such as fuels and fuelling infrastructure, and to educate the public about this developing technology. DaimlerChrysler has proposed to supply its fuel cell vehicles to fleets in certain US markets. BP proposes to provide the refuelling infrastructure to support the fuelling needs of those fleets. In addition, Ford Motor Company and BP have announced a major initiative aimed at moving the US closer to a hydrogen economy. Ford intends to place up to 30 hydrogen-powered Ford Focus fuel cell vehicles (FCV), and BP plans to build a network of fuelling stations to support them, in metropolitan Sacramento, Orlando, and Detroit. The Ford Focus FCV uses an 85-kW fuel cell stack supplied by Ballard Power Systems, the world leader in proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology. The FCV is hybridised with the addition of a nickel metal-hydride battery pack and a brake-by-wire electro-hydraulic series regenerative braking system. BP plans to install a network of stations demonstrating state-of-the art fuelling technologies to support the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Some of the BP hydrogen refuelling stations will evaluate technologies that have near-term commercial feasibility, such as reformation of natural gas, while others will explore more long-term technology options and assess the potential to produce renewable-based hydrogen that achieve US Department of Energy hydrogen fuel cost targets. Under the proposal, Ford intends to station up to 10 Focus FCV vehicles in each of the three metro areas of Orlando, Sacramento, and Detroit. Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District and ChevronTexaco have also announced an innovative cooperative agreement to build a state-of-the-art hydrogen energy station in Oakland, California, that will produce hydrogen fuel for fuel cell fleets. The hydrogen will fuel AC Transit’s fleet of 40-ft Van Hool/UTC/ISE fuel cell buses and future fleets of light duty vehicles (cars, SUVs, and small trucks) in support of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s vision of a hydrogen highway network in California. The station will have the additional capability of utilising excess hydrogen production to generate high quality electrical power from a stationary fuel cell. The station, which will be capable of dispensing as much as 150 kg of hydrogen per day, is under development and is scheduled to be completed by August 2005. Unique to the station’s design is the use of small scale, onsite steam reforming of natural gas, to produce hydrogen in the most cost efficient manner for commercial applications. This approach is consistent with the findings cited in the recent National Academy of Engineering report on the hydrogen economy, states ChevronTexaco. Meanwhile, a project team led by Air Products, including automobile manufacturers Toyota Motor Sales USA, American Honda Motor, Nissan North America, BMW, ConocoPhillips, the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at Davis, and the California South Coast Air Quality Management Districtautomakers are to work together to further demonstrate and validate advancements in hydrogen-based transportation infrastructure. Over the five-year programme, up to 24 fuelling station locations using multiple approaches to producing hydrogen and providing fuelling infrastructure could be developed. These include a fuelling station located on a pipeline, relocatable stations placed at existing retail gasoline stations including ConocoPhillips sites, as well as municipal locations. These fuelling stations will be supported by hydrogen produced from both natural gas and renewable energy sources. Some of these stations will also have dual dispensing capability of gaseous and liquid hydrogen. Toyota, Honda and Nissan plan to assign, collectively, up to 65 fuel cell vehicles to this project, and BMW plans to assign up to 15 hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engine vehicles. The vehicles are to be driven by a broad range of drivers and interested parties including technical experts, policy makers, vehicle customers and fleet operators. The project team requested DoE funding of approximately $35mn of the overall award for hydrogen infrastructure activities and a public outreach programme.