The Hawaii Hydrogen Initiative (H2I) was developed in December of 2010 as an initiative between The Gas Company and General Motors, based on a May 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between the two companies.. Ten other partners are also currently involved with this initiative, including: the state Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT); the U.S. Department of Energy; FuelCell Energy; Aloha Petroleum, Ltd.; Louis Berger Group; U.S. Pacific Command, supported by the U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. Pacific Air Forces, U.S. Army Pacific, and U.S. Marine forces, Pacific; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; the County of Hawaii; University of California Irvine, and the University of Hawaii. The goal of H2I is to make hydrogen powered vehicles, as well as fueling infrastructure, a reality. The Initiative will assist the State of Hawaii in its goal to reduce dependency on imported oil , reduce oil consumption, promote clean energy technologies, promote energy independence, and grow states clean energy economy. The initiative will also make hydrogen stations readily available to all Oahu residents by providing 20-25 fueling stations by 2015.
The Gas Company is currently evaluating methods on distributing hydrogen through existing natural gas pipelines, which would be cost effective in both production and distribution. Production of hydrogen is done along with synthetic natural gas. The product is delivered in a utility gas stream, however, a proprietary separation process separates hydrogen for use by local fueling stations for fuel cell vehicles. The product price in the future could be competitive with gasoline. General Motors is developing production intent fuel cell system that could be ready for commercialization by 2015. Hawaii is an opportune place for this project to be occurring in because of the abundant hydrogen sources available in Hawaii. Both companies are seeking Hawaii to be a template for other regions and looking to model other regions after Hawaii.
Resources:
General Motors: http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/news/news_detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2010/Dec/1208_fuelcell
The Gas Company: http://www.hawaiigas.com/news_events/051110.html
Department of Energy: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/news_detail.html?news_id=16557
