Post by account_disabled on Feb 25, 2024 9:29:56 GMT
Hydrogen supercar maker Hyperion is unhappy with the state of hydrogen fuel infrastructure, so it decided to start building its own yacht-style mobile hydrogen station in the United States that can generate fuel on site.
According to IbisWorld , there are , gas stations in the United States. According to GLP Autogas , there are only hydrogen fueling stations in the US, including private fleet facilities. If you remove California and Hawaii from the picture, there is a grand total of zero. That's better than Australia, which offers brave Nexo and Mirai drivers just three options to fill up the tank nationwide, but even fuel cell proponents Japan and Korea only have and stations. in operation, respectively.
It's bigger than a simple chicken and egg problem; Many EV owners are happy to be able to charge at home or at work, so the idea of an EV sending them back to the gas stations is less than appealing. But hydrogen vehicles could end up playing a bigger role than expected in the energy transition; They're starting to look like the final refuge of the revhead, and besides, there's not enough lithium being produced to build all the electric cars everyone expects to be sold in the coming decades.
Either way, Hyperion isn't going to sit around crying about it. Two years after launching its XP-, a hydrogen-powered electric supercar with a monstrous range of over a thousand miles (~, km) per tank, the company has announced that it will enter the fuel business.
Instead of getting stuck in real C Level Executive List estate, building traditional fuel stations, and establishing H supply chains, Hyperion has decided to build mobile fuel stops that can be towed wherever you want and left there for as long as it makes sense.
As with the XP-, Hyperion has gone out of its way to make these things look downright sick. In fact, people might walk past these things and assume that someone's luxury yacht has fallen off the trailer. No, it's a hydrogen station, in fact, one that can produce its own hydrogen, compress it and store it.
Details are a bit sparse; If you want it to produce hydrogen instead of just storing and dispensing it, you'll need to park it somewhere with access to fresh water to run through the electrolyzer . And while there are five "solar tracking solar panels" on the roof, you'll want a grid connection if you expect it to get a lot of use.
You would need a ton more solar power to generate enough power to fill a single kWh car battery every day, and even more when you factor in the inefficiencies related to electrolysis. Oh well, the XP- also has "articulated solar panels", again in quantities best described as ornamental, so maybe it's a branding issue.
They don't seem to need constant staff; Customers will use touch screens and tap to pay, and fuel tanks will self-sanitize under UV light between fill-ups. They can also be configured to serve as fast-charging stations for battery-powered electric cars, fast enough to get most cars from to % in about minutes, and Hyperion says it wants to ship them to hot spots. disaster to serve as emergency power sources when needed.
These "Mobile Hyper Fuel Stations" will be manufactured at the company's facility in Ohio, and it will begin rolling them out "across the United States" in It plans to place them at existing gas stations, in the parking lots of large shopping centers and in other locations. high traffic areas.
Hyperion sees this as a relatively quick and inexpensive way to establish a nascent hydrogen supply network with minimal risk and investment. They will not need to buy land or sign long contracts; If they are not getting used to it, they can be moved to another location. It will be interesting to see how they communicate these movements to customers, assuming they have started to rely on a certain station.
According to IbisWorld , there are , gas stations in the United States. According to GLP Autogas , there are only hydrogen fueling stations in the US, including private fleet facilities. If you remove California and Hawaii from the picture, there is a grand total of zero. That's better than Australia, which offers brave Nexo and Mirai drivers just three options to fill up the tank nationwide, but even fuel cell proponents Japan and Korea only have and stations. in operation, respectively.
It's bigger than a simple chicken and egg problem; Many EV owners are happy to be able to charge at home or at work, so the idea of an EV sending them back to the gas stations is less than appealing. But hydrogen vehicles could end up playing a bigger role than expected in the energy transition; They're starting to look like the final refuge of the revhead, and besides, there's not enough lithium being produced to build all the electric cars everyone expects to be sold in the coming decades.
Either way, Hyperion isn't going to sit around crying about it. Two years after launching its XP-, a hydrogen-powered electric supercar with a monstrous range of over a thousand miles (~, km) per tank, the company has announced that it will enter the fuel business.
Instead of getting stuck in real C Level Executive List estate, building traditional fuel stations, and establishing H supply chains, Hyperion has decided to build mobile fuel stops that can be towed wherever you want and left there for as long as it makes sense.
As with the XP-, Hyperion has gone out of its way to make these things look downright sick. In fact, people might walk past these things and assume that someone's luxury yacht has fallen off the trailer. No, it's a hydrogen station, in fact, one that can produce its own hydrogen, compress it and store it.
Details are a bit sparse; If you want it to produce hydrogen instead of just storing and dispensing it, you'll need to park it somewhere with access to fresh water to run through the electrolyzer . And while there are five "solar tracking solar panels" on the roof, you'll want a grid connection if you expect it to get a lot of use.
You would need a ton more solar power to generate enough power to fill a single kWh car battery every day, and even more when you factor in the inefficiencies related to electrolysis. Oh well, the XP- also has "articulated solar panels", again in quantities best described as ornamental, so maybe it's a branding issue.
They don't seem to need constant staff; Customers will use touch screens and tap to pay, and fuel tanks will self-sanitize under UV light between fill-ups. They can also be configured to serve as fast-charging stations for battery-powered electric cars, fast enough to get most cars from to % in about minutes, and Hyperion says it wants to ship them to hot spots. disaster to serve as emergency power sources when needed.
These "Mobile Hyper Fuel Stations" will be manufactured at the company's facility in Ohio, and it will begin rolling them out "across the United States" in It plans to place them at existing gas stations, in the parking lots of large shopping centers and in other locations. high traffic areas.
Hyperion sees this as a relatively quick and inexpensive way to establish a nascent hydrogen supply network with minimal risk and investment. They will not need to buy land or sign long contracts; If they are not getting used to it, they can be moved to another location. It will be interesting to see how they communicate these movements to customers, assuming they have started to rely on a certain station.