Honda FCX Clarity

The California Air Resources Board announced today that it has awarded Mebtahi Station Services, San Francisco Airport, Shell Hydrogen and UCLA $1.7 million each to supplement their construction of hydrogen refueling stations doubling the amount of hydrogen available to the public.

The grants, provided by the California legislature and distributed by the ARB through a competitive bid process, are aimed at increasing the use of alternative fuels. The new stations will serve the growing number of fuel-cell vehicles on the road in the Los Angeles and the San Francisco areas and will double the amount of hydrogen available to the public.

"Hydrogen is one of the many fuels in California’s future," said ARB Chairman Mary Nichols, "but we need to cultivate the industry’s early growth. This grant money will nurture a burgeoning technology that will provide jobs, invigorate our economy, and provide the state with clean power."

Mebtahi Station Services will use the funds to add hydrogen fuel to their existing Chevron Station near the corner of Western Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Harbor City. In a partnership with Capital Investment Group, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., and General Physics, Mebtahi will provide up to 100 kilograms of hydrogen per day to vehicles in a publicly familiar retail setting.

The San Francisco Airport will build a hydrogen refueling facility at the airport’s Millbrae Avenue exit on Highway 101. This station will dispense 120 kilograms per day and fuel passenger cars and busses operated by transit agencies throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Shell Hydrogen will also add hydrogen to an existing retail gasoline station at 1600 Jamboree Road in Newport Beach. The station will produce up to 100 kilograms per day of hydrogen on site through a natural gas steam-reformation system.

UCLA, in a partnership with Air Products, General Physics and South Coast Air Quality Management District, plans to build a hydrogen fueling station at its transit facility at the corner of Veteran and Kinross Avenues in Westwood. This publicly available facility will produce hydrogen on site and will provide 140 kilograms per day.

The average refueling amount for a fuel-cell vehicle is about four to five kilos.

California is pursuing a transition to clean energy and energy diversity by promoting efforts by automobile manufacturers and energy companies to employ hydrogen as a power source for vehicles and electricity production.

[Source: CARB]