Hydrogen-powered vehicles can finally fill up in Kelowna
Hydrogen cars have arrived in Kelowna and the Interior’s first refilling station officially opened today.
The refilling station opened this morning, June 29, beside the Esso gas station at the intersection of Highway 97 and Spall Avenue in Kelowna.
While the hydrogen fuel industry promises zero emissions out of the tailpipe, it’s not about to replace the world’s growing love affair with electric cars. Right now there are only half-a-dozen hydrogen cars in the city.
“The optimum is a mix,” Colin Armstrong, president and CEO of Hydrogen Technology and Energy Corporation, which installed the new station, told iNFOnews.ca. “If battery works for you it’s going to be better but often from a logistics and fuel supply point of view, it’s better to have a balance of the two. There’s pros and cons to both of them and together we’re trying to displace the diesel.”
Hydrogen-powered vehicles have been around for a long time in industrial and aerospace settings, but it has taken a decade to translate those codes and standards into something that works for public fuelling stations.
“When George Bush did a demo 15 years ago, maybe more, he had to wear fire-proof gloves and a jacket before he could fill a car up,” Armstrong said. “Now that has all progressed and my wife or my mother can go to a fuelling station and fill up. It took awhile. We also now have close to 50 million fuelling events and all that data to prove safety and so the insurance guys can understand it.”
The vehicles are built to “clam” up in case of a a collision to prevent hydrogen from escaping, he said. If hydrogen does escape, it will rise harmlessly into the air.
A Toyota webpage says the tanks are built so strong that they can repel a bullet fired at close range.
The two most common ways of making hydrogen are electrolysis (creating hydrogen from water molecules) or by processing methane (and sequestering or otherwise managing the carbon).
Either way, the carbon emissions from the vehicle are eliminated.
So, why not just stick with electric? One reason is the need for more electricity to be generated.
“From a time frame and grid upgrade perspective it’s a pretty powerful supply line you need to get that electricity to users whereas with hydrogen you’re delivering with alternative methods,” Armstrong said.
Another thing is that it only takes about six minutes to refuel a hydrogen tank with enough fuel to travel 600 kilometres, a fraction of the time it takes to recharge an all-electric car.
A third reason, according to a British Auto Express site, is that it takes tonnes of carbon to mine lithium for the batteries and clean energy is needed to produce the electricity to charge them or else having no direct emissions still doesn't eliminate carbon going into the atmosphere.
A fourth reason is that electric vehicles are very heavy, especially with more batteries needed in order to get a longer driving range.
An electric car with enough batteries to only travel 320 km will weigh about the same as a hydrogen car. Add more batteries and the weight goes up, having an impact on road surfaces and tires.
“Toyota at one of their talks said at the end of the day the cost of the car is very proportional to its weight so if cars are lighter they’ll be less expensive,” Armstrong said.
Only Toyota and Hyundai are making hydrogen cars now and they cost about the same as other electric cars. BMW will have one out soon, which will likely be in a higher price bracket.
It's expected as hydrogen catches on the price of both the cars and the hydrogen will drop.
Other electric cars can also be converted.
A Tesla, for example, could have 90% of its batteries removed and have them replaced with a hydrogen fuel cell, a hydrogen tank and a few other changes.
Hydrogen can also be used to run internal combustion engines and work is being done on blending hydrogen with diesel, which could cut down on diesel use by 40%, Armstrong said.
“All this stuff needs to be explored,” he said. “The efficiency of the electric drive is going to be hard to beat so we’re basically focused on the hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle, but we’ll fuel anything.”
That includes entire transit systems. The Central Okanagan is planning to build a new transit maintenance facility that will allow them to convert to electric buses.
“We’re trying to educate BC Transit and TransLink,” Armstrong said. “We do a lot of transition planning for groups in California transit properties. A lot of early proponents of battery electric are shifting their positions when they realize there are a lot of challenges that were maybe not obvious.”
Armstrong is also working closely with First Truck Centre, a Western Canada company that specializes in Freightliner and Western Star trucks. It's set up in West Kelowna but is building a new plant near Kelowna airport.
Last year, it struck a deal with Hydra Energy to convert heavy duty trucks to hydrogen.
Armstrong said his Hydrogen Technology company is looking for a second fuelling station in Kelowna for heavy duty trucks, which ties in with First Truck.
It took three years from the date Hydrogen Technology applied to the City of Kelowna for a building permit before the station actually opened.
READ MORE: First step to welcoming hydrogen vehicles on the horizon for Kelowna
That was due in part to the COVID pandemic and supply chain issues but also because it took time to work through the approval process with the city for something they had not dealt with before. And 7-11, which owns the property, also had concerns about other expansion plans for what is a crowded property.
Hydrogen Technology now has 25 stations operating or in the works across the country. It’s looking to build a network in BC with fuel stations in places like Merritt, Kamloops and Prince George.
“We’re looking to have, within a three-year time frame, a pretty good network across BC,” Armstrong said. “We’re hoping its faster than we did in Kelowna.”
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