Feb. 1, 2006
RIVERSIDE – Mayor Ron Loveridge and city officials
today dedicated the first municipal hydrogen fueling station in the Inland
Empire along with five hydrogen-powered Priuses to help hasten the day when
Southland residents can drive virtually zero-emission vehicles. “The City
of Riverside has a long history of demonstrating innovative clean air
vehicle technology, and this hydrogen fueling station will take our
alternative fueling infrastructure to the next level,” said Ron Loveridge,
Mayor of Riverside and a Governing Board Member of the South Coast Air
Quality Management District. “These vehicles drive and perform like regular
gasoline cars and yet they emit no global warming gases and meet the state’s
strictest standard for smog-forming pollutants.”
Riverside is one of five Southland cities partnering with AQMD to
demonstrate five hydrogen-fueling stations and a total of 30 hybrid Priuses
with internal combustion engines that have been modified to burn gaseous
hydrogen. The other cities include Burbank, Ontario, Santa Ana and Santa
Monica. Each city and AQMD will operate five hydrogen-fueled Priuses for
five years. Although a small number of hydrogen stations now operate across
the country, primarily to refuel fuel cell vehicles, the five in Southern
California are the first in the nation based at cities and focused on
fueling internal-combustion vehicle fleets, AQMD officials said. The
stations also will be able to refuel fuel cell vehicles.
The hydrogen-fueled, internal combustion vehicles are considered a
near-term bridge to longer-term future technologies including fuel cell
vehicles, which emit only water vapor. Near-zero emission vehicles
including those powered by fuel cells are considered a key strategy to clean
up smog in the Inland Empire, which has some of the most severely polluted
air in the nation.
The five cities program is aimed at stimulating demand for hydrogen
fueling, accelerating the expansion of the region’s hydrogen fueling
network, and educating the public on hydrogen-fueled vehicles. City of
Riverside officials plan to use the five Priuses in everyday city fleet
driving as well as showcase them to community groups, neighborhood
associations and schools.
The total cost for the project is more than $7 million, including:
- A contract for $2.16 million awarded by AQMD to Quantum Fuel
Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. of Irvine to design, convert, test,
certify and maintain the hydrogen Priuses;
- Contracts for $3.9 million awarded by AQMD to Air Products and
Chemicals Inc., headquartered in Allentown, Penn., to install and
demonstrate hydrogen fueling stations at the five cities;
- Purchase of 30 Priuses, paid for by individual cities and AQMD, for
$750,000; and
- Preparation of cities’ fueling sites, paid for by cities and estimated
at a total of approximately $500,000.
In Riverside, Burbank, and Santa Monica, hydrogen will be generated with
electrolyzer units that use electricity to separate hydrogen from water. In
Santa Ana and Ontario, Air Products has installed a mobile hydrogen-fueling
unit mounted on a trailer. All cities’ hydrogen fueling stations are now
operational except for Santa Monica, which is scheduled to open this
spring. Each station will be capable of filling 10 vehicles per day and in
the future could be expanded to fill up to 20 vehicles per day.
Each hydrogen-fueled Prius has a compressed gas fuel cylinder that holds
up to 1.6 kilograms of hydrogen, giving the vehicles a range of up to 80
miles per fill. (One kilogram of hydrogen is roughly equivalent to the
energy content of one gallon of gasoline.)
The Priuses meet the state of California’s strict Super Ultra Low
Emission Vehicle standard for smog-forming nitrogen oxides, and unlike their
gasoline-fueled counterparts, they have no carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide
or hydrocarbon emissions.
The five cities’ hydrogen fueling sites add to a growing network of
hydrogen stations in the Southland. Three other stations -- at AQMD
headquarters in Diamond Bar, LAX and Sunline Transit Agency in Thousand
Palms -- now are operational. An additional two stations, at UC Irvine and
in Torrance, are scheduled to open by the end of the year. All 10 stations
will provide hydrogen for fuel cell and internal-combustion engine vehicles.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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