March 1, 2007

A hydrogen fueling station like this one opened
on the campus of the University of California,
Irvine, bringing to 23 the number of hydrogen
fueling stations in California.
The BMW Hydrogen 7 was one of our hydrogen vehicles on site for the opening, along with a FCX and a Nissan X-Trail SUV that was actually the first to take on fuel and motor off silently Tuesday (Feb. 27). The station has funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, California's South Coast Air Quality Management District, UCI's National Fuel Cell Research Center and Air Products (a distributor of gases), and BMW. Air Products built the station, at Jamboree Road and Campus Drive in Irvine. Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are also backers.

The UCI filling station is California’s first that can dispense gaseous hydrogen at both 350 (about 5,000 psi) and 700 bar (10,000 psi). Higher-pressure fueling gives the vehicles more range on hydrogen; for BMW’s Hydrogen 7, it’s about 100 miles on hydrogen, another 300 on gasoline for its dual-fuel V12.


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