GM Developing Home Hydrogen Refueling Device - 9/27/06

Refueling your hydrogen car might become possible from your home.  GM is working on a home hydrogen refueling unit.  They hope to begin selling this by 2011.  By using sunlight or electricity to make hydrogen, this would make it easier for refueling the alternative-power cars.  However it is getting harder to get the oil companies to invest in this new technology that competes with their main product, gasoline.

GM hopes to make it possible for auto owners to refuel their own car from the luxury of their own home.  They are joining Honda, who has already started the search of new alternative power. 

Hydrogen fueling stations are expensive and currently there are very few.  California has the most at 23 with 15 still in the making.  There are a few in other states.  The biggest problem with these fueling stations is expense.  In Washington DC, Shell spent $2 million on the current hydrogen filling station.  There are plans for six more in New York and Los Angeles.

GM is hoping to be selling fuel cell powered vehicles in the next five years.  That is earlier than expected.   The original prediction had been just about one decade.  They are hoping for a new golden age for GM similar to the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Honda is in its third generation of a home refueling unit called plug power.  The one that is current produces enough hydrogen from natural gas that a home and car can be powered.   They have a solar-powered refueling station currently in Torrance, California that makes enough hydrogen for 30 miles per day. 

There are other auto makers working on hydrogen programs, however they are not as far along as Honda and GM.

Author: Chris Woodward
9/25/06
USA Today

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