The President and I

That's right folks, I am now have something in common with George Bush that puts us in the same small group. (insert your favorite George Bush is stupid slur here) But that's not what I'm talking about.... we both have refueled a hydrogen car! That's right, when the hydrogen stations emerge in our near future we can both be gas station attendants and fill up your car for you! It's a rare skill. Let me do my best to explain the procedure in layman terms for you...

1. First you open the car's tank by opening a little door on the side of the car.
2. Pull off the cap to the tank (I know this is revolutionary and so exciting!)
3. Stick this nozzle from the pump onto the tank's cap thing.
4. This is where it gets tricky- you have to turn the nozzle- which does have arrows to remind you to do this. This action seems to engage the nozzle-pump thing with the vehicles tank. (I know I look perplexed, but really it was easy- I was waaaay overthinking it!)
5. Turn back to the pump and push a button on the pump, just like today's modern gasoline pumps- they were very smart to make it so familiar!
6. Then you wait for the tank to fill. Here I am waiting and looking quite fab...

7. When the pump stops (don't worry its automatic!) you disengage by turning the nozzle the opposite direction and you place it back on the pump.

8. Replace the cap back on your tank and close the little door and WAL AH!

Your car now can use an odorless, ZERO emission fuel ready to drive for 200 miles. Well actually the vehicle then emits water, so it's really just ZERO carbon emissions. Not to worry, since it's hydrogen in gas form, if it spills out of the tank it just evaporates and turns back into air. Pretty cool. I refueled with the gas version- as in gas like helium, you can't see it or smell it and it is not a liquid. That is the easy and safe way to use hydrogen. Air Products has invented this system to work with hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars- like electric cars that we had all the hype on in the late 90's but instead of plugging them in to recharge you refuel with the hydrogen. My boyfriend (Matt) worked in that department, that's how I know all this...anyways back to my story.

There is another hydrogen option for vehicles...liquid hydrogen. Liquid hydrogen can be used like todays gasoline running a combustible engine. This is the route that BMW is going with their hydrogen cars. I didn't get the opportunity to refuel one of these cars because liquid hydrogen is highly combustible- meaning it catches fire and can explode if it mixes with air. Kinda scary. It takes a huge contraption on a long bed semi-truck to refuel the BMWs. Here is the set up. There are actually 2 semi trucks and that shorty truck. It takes about an hour to get ready to fuel with liquid hydrogen for 3 cars!The hose that they use for the liquid hydrogen is very rigid, so it doesn't flex. They designed this refueling system to be on the ground originally. Since the hose doesn't flex, they have to set up this ramp system to refuel the cars each time- so they are at the same level and the hose can reach.
Seemed kinda stupid to me. But since it's just a media tour, and the cars are the stars not the refueling system BMW made do. I thought it was funny looking- the pump station- the umbrella is just to keep the glare off the controls for the guys, but I think it looks like a fancy hot dog vendor. They need balloons attached for the full vendor affect.

Here (pic above) the German guy is hooking up the rigid hose to the car. The hose is really big as you can see. Makes it look like you gotta be muscle man to do it. But as you can see here (pic below) I wouldn't quite describe the German guy as muscle man. But he was really nice. He asked me 'do you like cars a lot?'

I'm afraid I don't like cars alot, I told him "Actually I don't drive." Kind of a funny little interaction. He didn't seem to know what to say.

I didn't get pictures to show that they had caution tape all around them, and fire extinguishers. It was quite the show just watching them refuel the 3 beamers. 2 were hybrids- and one was a straight liquid hydrogen car, which seemed to be the star of the tour.

This tour had cars from all the manufactures and was being put on by the US DOT. The California Fuel Cell Partnership were driving the cars from city to city. They are going from Maine to California. Mobile refueling trucks are necessary because there are only 68 hydrogen (the gas kind, not liquid) stations in our country. Air Products has the only DOT certified hydrogen refueling trucks in the country, so that is what Matt has been working on in Pennsylvania where the AP headquarters are located.

Again here is the Air Products refueling truck. It was really simple, they turned it on by opening the valves and that was it. They are refueling the 7 cars from Toyota, Nissan, GM and Ford (I think that was all) while BMW has that entire crazy set up to fill 3 cars.

It only took 2 guys to run the Air Products truck (above) and Matt as an intern was basically along for the ride. Although he really enjoyed talking to the people about it and explaining it all waaay more technically than I just did! If you have specific questions I'll have to pass them on. Seriously- this is my best stab at getting technical about all this for you all. Although poor Matt has explained it a zillion times! It's starting to slowly sink in....

This is Matt, Mike and Tom in front of the little hydrogen truck that could. These guys adored Matt! Calling him their "adopted son." Tom even called last night to say hi and tell Matt how well the end of the route went. (The California Air Product guys are taking care of the rest of the tour. It was really confusing logisitcs!) It was really nice of him to call Matt, it meant a lot.

This all was this last Sunday morning. I met up with them in Augusta, Georgia late Saturday night. I took the greyhound bus- maybe I'll write a post about that tomorrow! After refueling, Matt and I followed the cars to Atlantic Station in Atlanta for a public showing of the cars. Here is a link for more info on the national tour.

Matt is home now after being in PA for 3 months. Georgia Tech classes started Monday, so he is back in classes for his last semester.
I'm back to my commute by biking in Atlanta. Breathing exhaust and asthma inducing emissions. I highly doubt the President has that in common with me.