Town of Hempstead Opens Hydrogen Fuel Station

While hydrogen fuel cars have already been created, they are still a couple of years away from hitting the automobile market. On February 18, 2009, the Town of Hempstead borrowed a hydrogen fuel car from General Motors, the world’s second largest automaker. Officials currently have custody of this unique car. The car is a zero emission prototype and it runs on hydrogen fuel cells. A fuel station will be built on Long Island, its first. It will be located on Point Lookout in New York.

The hydrogen fuel station is estimated to cost around 2 million dollars and is one of many planned. If state energy officials have their way, a plethora of hydrogen fuel stations will be built in a network across New York. They hope that in doing so they will promote this clean and plentiful gas. The fuel stations are planned to have three types of fuel available: pure hydrogen, compressed natural gas, and a mixture of both. The officials plan on doing research and monitoring the special vehicles to see if hydrogen will flourish as a widely available fuel source. Supervisor Kate Murray said, "It will help us to actually evaluate the potential to develop hydrogen-based fuels for industrial, commercial and consumer use” (Smith 1).

So far, a lot of money has been donated to this cause. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority donated $900,000. It is not alone as the National Grid also donated $50,000. In order to get the hydrogen for the cars, the National Grid workers are using an electric current to separate hydrogen from water. They split H2O into H2 and O, and use the hydrogen as a miraculous source of fuel.

In my opinion, this article is very significant and includes some important information for the public. The natural resources that humans depend so greatly on are dwindling. It is of utmost importance to find an alternate resource to run our cars. The hydrogen based cars run on the expensive but plentiful hydrogen fuel cells. Hopefully this article...