Audi marathon fleet stops for diesel, finds hydrogen
Washington DC Shell Hydrogen Station
At the end of our first day on the road for the Audi Mileage Marathon yesterday, our destination was Washington, D.C. As we rolled into the Capitol area, the Q7 TDI's navigation system attempted to guide us to a local Shell station (Shell is one of Audi's partners on this little adventure and the official fuel supplier) on the north side of town for our first official refueling stop. Interestingly, this particular station dispenses more than just gasoline and ultra low sulfur diesel. It also happens to be the site of one of the few publicly-accessible hydrogen fueling stations in the country. Judging by the GM sign on the top of the hydrogen pump, this is likely on of the stations used for the Project Driveway fuel cell fleet test program in the DC area. Looks pretty conventional doesn't it?
Gallery: Washington DC Hydrogen station
Our travel and lodging for this media event was provided by the manufacturer.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Serge 1:45PM (10/07/2008)
Where is the interface for credit cards and such? No price information either. Is the fuel of the future free?
Reply
paulwesterberg 3:28PM (10/07/2008)
It's just a marketing gimmick so the lobbyists can driver around congress critters and persuade them to allocate more taxpayer funds into hydrogen research and automaker subsidies.
They don't talk about how much hydrogen costs(much more than gas), or where the cheapest hydrogen comes from(refactored natural gas) or how little energy you can actually store in hydrogen(80 miles unless you waste a huge amount of energy compressing into liquid form). Also they skip how expensive, complicated and inefficient fuel cells are when compared to existing battery technology.
Shell would love for the US to switch to hydrogen, then they could get government subsidies to pump more natural gas, reformulate it and then sell it for a healthy profit as the "clean" fuel of the future. Hydrogen makes global warming worse and keeps the oil companies in control of our energy supply.
They don't list the price because they are not interested in selling any hydrogen anytime soon.
gorr 4:40PM (10/07/2008)
Car tuners in that area should sell and install secondary gazeous hydrogen tanks put in the trunk and a switch to choose between gasoline or hydrogen operation. There is a lot of thing to learn and organize but once it's becoming more common then it might be a good new market for tuners and mechanical shops. The market can expand later on with some hydrogen production machine that we can install at home. The pressure can be standardize to 10 000 p.s.i with quality machinery and tanks.
Reply
JamesWB 9:11AM (10/08/2008)
Why would tuners want to do that? Have you seen how much the power, torque and mpg drops for the BMW Hydrogen 7?