Tai W. Robinson and Riverside Mayor Ronald O. Loveridge filling the GreenHummer w/ CNG in Riverside during the Ribbon Cutting ceremony. Then Tai and his son Charles visited the California H2 Business Council Meeting SCAQMD in Diamond Bar, CA. (Mouse over the picture... )


Riverside, California is Clean Air Aware!

The city of Riverside is on the cutting edge of the clean fuel/clean air movement--and is making it easy for the public to "Be A Part Of It."

Thursday, January 22, 2004 featured the opening of one of the largest public access Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fast-fill fueling stations in the state of California. Dedicated by Mayor Ronald O. Loveridge, this card swiping fuel station will be open 24 hours a day. With the reduced cost of CNG, a cleaner burning fuel than gasoline, consumers will collectively save approximately $413,640 a year when utilizing this facility. The CNG vehicles using this remodeled fuel station are expected to reduce pollutants of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter by 39 tons per year.

The thoughtfulness of this station looks to the future as well. It was designed to be upgraded with the addition of a Compressed Hydrogen (CH2) filling nozzle. The city of Riverside looks forward to fueling the five Hydrogen internal combustion vehicles to be delivered upon completion of the South Coast Air Quality Management District RFP #2004-001. This proposal also includes 5 vehicles going to the city fleets of Burbank, Ontario, Santa Ana, Santa Monica, as well, the SCAQMD receives 5 vehicles to be tested by their employees. Each of the 5 cities will also get a Hydrogen filling station for these and other Hydrogen powered automobiles to fill their compressed tanks with the cleanest available fuel. These are expected to be public fueling stations, which will open up the metropolitan roads to travel by fuel cell and internal combustion hydrogen vehicles alike.

Today we have another renewable fuel that could potentially be dispensed at this station. BioDiesel is a cleaner fuel that can be produced locally, supporting a healthy economy. BioDiesel can flow in the existing infrastructure including pumps and engines with no modifications. Processes have been developed to eliminate the problem of "gelling" and allow B100, (100% BioDiesel) to operate without incident to below -40 degrees Fahrenheit. Both soy based and petroleum based additives exist now to reduce oxides of nitrogen emissions when added in concentrations of less than 1% to BioDiesel. With these advancements in BioDiesel on top of all the other benefits it is hard to exclude this home grown fuel from a diverse group of cleaner, renewable fuels including Hydrogen and CNG.

Yes, I said renewable CNG. To a certain extent, CNG can be produced in limited amounts from bio gas such as produced from decomposing matter at land fills. BioDiesel with some cleaver accounting is the only fuel we can grow right now with a net gain in energy content compared to how much energy is expended to produce it. From agricultural crops BioDiesel is only limited by the farm land available to grow virgin fuel oil on. BioDiesel produced from recycled oil, has only as much potential as waste veggie oil (WVO) humans generate. Hydrogen when extracted from water using solar power creates a water/fuel cycle that can be practically limitless.

Sponsors of the fill station project dedication included American Honda, Complete Coachworks, Cummins Westport, El Dorado National, Enviromech, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Los Angeles Freightliner and Southern California Gas Company.

Privately owned vehicles including a Crown Vic and the GreenHummer graciously accepted the complementary CNG provided by the sponsors. Many of the sponsor’s vehicles also test the new pumps by filling their tanks with the free CNG.

Tai W. Robinson
President
Intergalactic Hydrogen
www.IntergalacticHydrogen.com
 tai@h2go.info