Hydrogen Fuel Cells — Taking The HyRoad
Since January 2006, Chevron has been providing the hydrogen to AC Transit‘s fleet of zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as part of a comprehensive fuel cell demonstration program called The HyRoad.
Chicken and Egg
A major obstacle to the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cell technology has been a chicken-and-egg question: Who‘s going to build fuel cell vehicles if there‘s nowhere to fuel them? And who‘s going to build fueling stations if no one is buying fuel cell vehicles?
Together, AC Transit and Chevron Have an Answer
Chevron produces hydrogen for the AC Transit fuel cell fleet on site, right where the vehicles are fueled, addressing the chicken-and-egg question head-on. As of October 2007, more than 13,000 kilograms of hydrogen (for comparison, one kilogram of hydrogen contains roughly the energy of one gallon of gasoline) have been produced and dispensed at the AC Transit site without any accidents or unnecessary releases.
Performance
Because fuel cell vehicles produce zero pollution, hydrogen is often seen as part of the ideal solution to the world‘s energy needs. So far, the results of the HyRoad demonstration program have surpassed all expectations. Specifically, the HyRoad has:
- Put over a dozen zero-emission fuel vehicles into service
- Kept hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollutants out of the air
- Logged tens of thousands of miles
- Carried more than 100,000 passengers
- Gathered thousands of hours of operational data
- Advanced the technology. Fuel cell developers and systems integrators have used the data to improve vehicle performance. Our buses can now achieve:
- Speeds up to 70 mph
- Range up to 300 miles
- Capability to climb steep, 18% grades
- Significantly greater energy efficiency than diesel
See the Data:
For more information on The HyRoad, click here.
