The pilot plant's hydrogen system includes production, compression, storage and fuel dispensing. The purity of the hydrogen produced at the pilot plant exceeds 99.999 percent. Hydrogen is produced using an electrolysis process that separates water into hydrogen and oxygen. The plant also compresses natural gas for use as a motor fuel.
The pilot plant, and the hydrogen and HCNG internal combustion engine test vehicles, are operated through a public/private sector partnership agreement between DOE's Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity, Electric Transportation Applications, Arizona Public Service, and the DOE's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.
In addition to reducing the use of petroleum, using hydrogen and HCNG as fuels in internal combustion engine vehicles provides air emissions benefits. Burning hydrogen in internal combustion engines also supports development of the hydrogen infrastructure needed for fuel cell vehicles.
Visit http://avt.inel.gov/hydrogen.html to find the Pilot Plant Design Report and information on the DOE's hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicle testing.
DOE, through its Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity, conducts baseline performance, accelerated reliability and fleet testing on advanced technology vehicles. The Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity is a component of DOE's Office of FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies Program.
The Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity light-duty vehicle evaluations are managed for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy from the INEEL in Idaho Falls, Idaho. For more information on this and other testing activities, visit the Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity Web page at http://avt.inel.gov or contact Jim Francfort ( francfje@inel.gov , 208-526-6787).