Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the most abundant element on earth. Hydrogen can provide power to vehicles in either combustion engines or fuel cells. In a combustion engine, the compressed hydrogen is injected into the engine and "burned" in a similar way to other fuels. In a fuel cell vehicle, hydrogen reacts with oxygen which produces electricity to power an electric motor. The only by-product of using hydrogen is water.

The hydrogen vehicle market is still young, and growing. A closer look at the technologies and efforts to build supporting infrastructure from BC to California can be found on the “Hydrogen Highway” (Of course, the complementary concept of a “Green Highway” reflects the need for infrastructure to power vehicles using a range of alternative energy sources: hydrogen, electricity, biofuels and natural gas.)

British Columbia enjoys the distinction of having the world’s largest demonstration fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses (20 in all), showcased at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. These buses will continue to serve the Resort Municipality of Whistler (making up 70% of the local public transit bus fleet) through to 2014. This is a pilot project to assess hydrogen fuel cell technology in a variety of conditions – a joint effort of BC Transit, the Province of BC, Government of Canada and the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association. For a look at the first year of operations, see BC Transit’s presentation to the 2011 Hydrogen and Fuel Cells conference.

In May 2011 the Government of BC announced an investment in the first world's first small-scale hydrogen liquefaction plant. The plant will be built in North Vancouver by BC-based Hydrogen Technology & Energy Corporation (HTEC)  and Sacré-Davey Engineering, along with international partner Air Liquide. The plan is to use local by-product hydrogen to produce low-carbon liquefied hydrogen to power hydrogen fuel cell buses and vehicles throughout the Pacific Northwest.