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Fuel Cell Company Unveils Home Hydrogen Station

  • Jan 08, 2010

“A hydrogen station in every home” is a futuristic vision that is about to become a reality this week as Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies unveils what could be its biggest breakthrough to date: a small home hydrogen refueling and storage solution that could begin our transition to a hydrogen-based economy.

In addition to making many new fuel cell products possible, the refueling device enables a lower cost, scalable, and consumer-centric hydrogen supply model which eliminates the dependence on large-scale fueling infrastructure investments. Horizon’s game-changer innovation can unlock the age-old dilemma over which comes first: clean cars, or clean fuels.

“We no longer need to rely on nationwide networks of hydrogen fueling stations to enable large-scale fuel cell commercialization,” comments Taras Wankewycz, one of the company’s founders. “Horizon is initiating a transition that places consumers in the driving seat. Thanks to our innovation each household can gradually become a major part of tomorrow’s hydrogen fuel supply infrastructure.”

Named HydoFillTM, the world’s first personal hydrogen station designed by Horizon was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The small desktop device simply plugs into the AC, a solar panel or a small wind turbine, automatically extracts hydrogen from its water tank and stores it in a solid form in small refillable cartridges.

Horizon believes this new development is the first step toward private refueling of new generations of fuel cell electric vehicles. Fuel cell technology can greatly improve the features and usability of many battery or engine-powered devices, and create the possibility for lower cost electric cars that drive longer distances and recharge instantly.



Comments

Fri, Apr 23, 2010 mobile phone lucknow

You can't store H2 as "solid", you have to compress it -- and it migrates through metals, embrittling them. Furthermore, it takes a huge amount of energy to free H2 from H2O and then compress it -- hooking it to a solar panel will be a big laugh! Instead, simply using the electric to charge an EV is much more efficient. It's FALSE that a fuel cell vehicle is an EV; it's a serial hybrid, using tanks of gas to generate electric just as a gas engine would do. ------------------------------ jai jai

Fri, Apr 23, 2010 mobile phone lucknow

Hydrogen can indeed be stored as a solid. it is sent into the cartridge under high pressure using a special electrolyzer. As it enters the cartridge.t has hundreds of case studies on emerging green technology. ------------------------------- jai jai

Fri, Jan 15, 2010 Chemistry101 University of Earth

Please tell me someone verified the science here, because my brain wouldn't allow me to read past the part about Hydrogen and how it "stores it in a solid form." EXCUSE ME? REALLY? Hydrogen's state of matter can not be solid unless you reduce it's temperature below -259 degrees Celsius... So you're telling me your 'invention', powered only by green source energy, has the power to extract Hydrogen atoms from water and store it as solid... I call major BS on this one, your promotional writer needs to re-read 'chemistry and physics for dummies'

Thu, Jan 14, 2010

Hydrogen can indeed be stored as a solid. it is sent into the cartridge under high pressure using a special electrolyzer. As it enters the cartridge, a metal matrix adsorbs the hydrogen atoms and makes the gas part of the metal, as a hydride. The system unveiled by Horizon actually manages this process automatically. It is also able to use small solar panels to do this. The advantage presented here in small devices, is that we are able to store more energy per weight and at lower cost than adding extra batteries - which is the current solution employed by EVs. Using this new approach, EVs can be enhanced by having a long range and fast charging time using a small fuel cell system combined with batteries along with a much smaller hydrogen storage tank. Similar electrolysis won't probably be used for larger applications such as car refueling, but the idea of turning your home into a charging station for next generation EVs that have a competing range with gasoline cars, and a fast charging time - is definitely here. There has been lots of hype on hydrogen in the past because it wasn't used in the right way, it was expensive and hydrogen was not easy to find. Now we are finally getting there and it'll become more obvious to everyone as they discover the benefits.

Sat, Jan 9, 2010 Doug Korthof Seal Beach, CA

Another idiotic hydrogen hype! You can't store H2 as "solid", you have to compress it -- and it migrates through metals, embrittling them. Furthermore, it takes a huge amount of energy to free H2 from H2O and then compress it -- hooking it to a solar panel will be a big laugh! Instead, simply using the electric to charge an EV is much more efficient. It's FALSE that a fuel cell vehicle is an EV; it's a serial hybrid, using tanks of gas to generate electric just as a gas engine would do.

Sat, Jan 9, 2010 Casey Verdant

The new Horizon HydroFill is such a great green gadget. Letting homeowners and small businesses generate hydrogen at home and work with water and electricity to power their USB devices is a small step toward global green technology. If you're looking for other green technologies for your home and business check out http://www.greencollareconomy.com. It has hundreds of case studies on emerging green technology. It's also the largest b2b green directory on the web.

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