UK’s first public hydrogen filling station opens

The first public hydrogen filling station in the UK has opened at Honda’s South Marston plant, the first step in creating a hydrogen fuel network in the UK.

Every car maker – well, every car maker with an eye to the future – is developing hydrogen fuel cell cars. Really, short of portable cold fusion becoming a reality, hydrogen is the only viable future for cars. So the opening of the UK’s first public hydrogen filling station today at Honda’s South Marston plant is a big deal.

Honda is the only car maker with a currently available hydrogen-powered car with the Honda FCX Clarity, but that looks set to change rapidly with cars like  Hyundai ix35 FCEV and the Mercedes B-Class F-Cell heading towards production in the next few years.

Just like EVs, the problem for hydrogen-powered cars is a lack of infrastructure, but it’s an infrastructure that can be implemented much more easily than one for EVs.

The problem with EVs – apart from their woeful range – is the amount of time it takes to recharge. Even if you have an EV with a 30 minute splash and dash recharge facility to get you home, the logistics of that scenario means it will never be practical to have an ‘Electricity’ filling station.

Can you imagine how big ‘Electric’ fuel stations would need to be to accommodate 30-45 minutes worth of traffic wanting to recharge at busy times? Imagine your local filling station at ten times the size – and ten times the traffic – and you have an idea. Totally impractical.

But hydrogen cars refuel in a similar time to petrol and diesel cars, so just as we see LPG pumps alongside petrol and diesel pumps at your local filling station we will – as hydrogen-powered cars become a reality – see hydrogen pumps appearing too.

The future is hydrogen.

Source: BBC