Costa Rica To Open Service Station For Hydrogen Vehicles By End 2015

COSTA RICA NEWS – With an investment of more than US$2 million dollars, the Ad Astra Rocket Company, led by former astronaut and scientist, Frankin Chang and the state refinery, the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE), will open the first service station for cars running on hydrogen.

The station will be located in Guanacaste and is expected to be in operation in the third quarter of 2015.

The project is being developed by young talent, a team of six engineers, a chemist and two supervisors, led by Chang. Currently the team is working on the final phase of the project, the way in which the hydrogen is dispensed.

Chang explained that the idea is to create a kind of ecosystem of fuel distribution in Guancaste, later to be applied in San José,

The plan includes the ability of consumers to acquire vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel, promoting the use of clean energy in transport, according to RECOPE’s head of research, Jimmy Fernández.

One of the issues the group has had to deal with it is obtaning materials and equipment, thus not available in Costa Rica.

Source: Amelia Rueda

Hydrogen Vehicle
A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power. Hydrogen vehicles include hydrogen fueled space rockets, as well as automobiles and other transportation vehicles. The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy either by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, or by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to run electric motors. Widespread use of hydrogen for fueling transportation is a key element of a proposed hydrogen economy.