A New Kind of Forecourt : Honda Opens Solar Powered Hydrogen Station

Many people are looking for ways to move away from using petroleum for transportation, and one alternative to using gas or diesel as a fuel is hydrogen, and companies like Honda and Toyota are developing vehicles that are powered by electricity generated from hydrogen fuel cells. This week Honda opened a hydrogen filling station at its factory in Swindon, UK at which the hydrogen provided is generated at the point of use using solar power. Hydrogen  for the station is produced using pressurized alkaline electrolysis of water powered by a solar farm.

Producing hydrogen on-site overcomes the need for expensive hydrogen storage and distribution systems, and this could be an attractive model for a new transportation fuel infrastructure.  The UK government, along with a consortium of industrial groups, provided funding for the creation of this station.

The filling station has the capacity to produce 20 tonnes of hydrogen per year, and will initially be used primarily to provide hydrogen to fleet vehicles, but Honda has its own fuel cell powered passenger car — the FCX Clarity — that can be refueled there.

An article at Autocar.co.uk provides more details.

We have often discussed the future of transportation here at E-Cat World, and the role that LENR technology could play in that future. It seems to me that generation of electricity will be the key if LENR is to have an impact with vehicles.

If LENR can be used to generate electricity efficiently, then hydrogen production would not be a major challenge, and fuel cell vehicles might make a lot of sense. Along with Honda, Toyota and Hyundai are moving forward with the development of fuel-cell vehicles. Also, LENR might also provide electricity for the charging of batteries used in electric vehicles — which are now becoming increasingly popular with companies like Tesla, Nissan, GM and Ford moving forward with all-electric cars.

It is possible at some point that on-board LENR power sources could be used — but probably not for passenger vehicles for some time. We already have nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers that have installed nuclear power plants which can run continuously for decades at a time without the need for refueling, and I think there’s a good chance that ships, subs and trains could the first kinds of vehicles to have LENR reactors powering them in similar ways.