GM, BMW join to develop hydrogen refueling technology- Goal is affordable vehicles by 2010

General Motors (GM) and the BMW Group will work together to develop refueling technology for liquid hydrogen vehicles and will invite other automakers and suppliers to join them, the companies said Wednesday.

GM, the world’s largest automaker, said BMW is an ideal partner because the German automaker has done extensive research on liquid hydrogen.

"We want to accelerate the progress being made on the distribution and on-board storage of liquid hydrogen as the future fuel," said Larry Burns, GM’s vice president of research and development and planning.

GM, BMW and every other major automaker are working on hydrogen-powered vehicles, most with fuel cells, which create electric power from hydrogen and emit only water vapor from their tailpipes.

GM and BMW say their goal is to have affordable and compelling hydrogen vehicles for sale by 2010. A key to meeting that goal, they say, is developing ways to store and handle the fuel easily.

Burns said compressed and liquid hydrogen both hold promise for hydrogen-powered vehicles, but liquid hydrogen’s density is "especially attractive with respect to fuel distribution."

The collaborative work will center around setting global standards for refueling equipment, both on vehicles and at retail locations, and establishing specifications for suppliers.

Liquid hydrogen is extremely cold, so the equipment must be able to protect people involved in the refueling and the vehicles.

"We have to start working on a standard so that customers will not be confronted with various systems," said Christoph Huss, BMW’s head of science and traffic policy. "Standardizing the refueling coupler is a must."

The GM-BMW agreement is the second partnership announced in a month by GM involving hydrogen-powered vehicles.

In March, GM and Shell Hydrogen said they were bringing a fleet of fuel-cell minivans to Washington for lawmakers and policy-makers to use — also touted by the companies as a partnership to speed the development of hydrogen technology.

The demonstration, to take place later this year, will involve six GM HydroGen3 fuel-cell minivans and two hydrogen fuel pumps to refuel them.

Each of the minivans is a GM Opel Zafira converted to run on hydrogen.

Right now, hydrogen vehicles aren’t viable because of their cost and the lack of means to refuel and maintain them. The Bush administration, which has pledged more than $1 billion for fuel-cell development over five years, has said it hopes to see the vehicles widely available by 2015.

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.

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