Feb 17 2011
Air Products' (NYSE: APD) mobile hydrogen fueling technology is helping Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) achieve its strategy of an energy sustainable future and a cleaner environment.
At the Livermore, Calif. based national security laboratory, Air Products technology and equipment is fueling two hydrogen powered shuttle buses used to transport employees and visitors at LLNL's main site.
"This laboratory does cutting edge work and is an important place to locate hydrogen fueling technology to show that it is ready and working today. This is an opportunity for the scientists working at the lab and the guests who visit the site to get a first-hand look at hydrogen as an alternative fuel," said Dan Rabun, business development manager for Hydrogen Energy Systems at Air Products. "We operate an identical shuttle bus at our headquarters and its daily use makes a positive statement about the potential of the technology."
The mobile hydrogen fueler is part of the diverse portfolio of hydrogen fueling technologies deployed by Air Products around the world. The versatile technology comes complete with fuel storage and dispensing, and can be transported from location to location to provide hydrogen fueling for both short and long-term fueling needs. The fueler can be remotely monitored and is designed to provide daily, around-the-clock hydrogen vehicle fueling availability. It is able to dispense hydrogen without the need for a utility hook-up as solar panels on the top of the fuelers provide the electrical power for the dispensing unit. In all, Air Products has 20 mobile fuelers at locations in the U.S.
A collaboration of Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories, the shuttle project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fuel Cell Technologies Program. LLNL has said the hydrogen shuttles, which will also be featured in educational community outreach activities, are part of a DOE-funded deployment of hydrogen powered vehicles and fueling infrastructure at nine federal facilities across the country to demonstrate this market-ready advanced technology.
This project is the latest in several hydrogen-fueled transit announcements by Air Products. In December 2010, Air Products announced it was filling five new hydrogen fuel cell powered buses that transport riders daily on the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) bus system in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It also commissioned its fueling station in London and is filling a fleet of five hydrogen buses as part of the Transport for London Project, which will be adding the first fleet of London hydrogen taxis in 2012. In November 2010, Air Products provided the hydrogen for a fleet of more than 50 hydrogen fuel cell shuttle vehicles that transported athletes and government officials at the Asian Games and Asian Para Games in Guangzhou City, China. The project was similar to Air Products' filling hydrogen buses at a fueling station in the Beijing Hydrogen Park for the Beijing Olympic Games, which marked the first demonstration project for new-energy vehicles in China.