Hydrogen: Hydrogen-powered Toyato Prius tests in U.S.

The Public Works department of Burlington, Connecticut, will be receiving a Toyota Prius next year. This is not an ordinary hybrid, though, but one of a hundred modified to run on hydrogen (fuel-cell).

In the spring, a hydrogen-powered Toyota Prius will join the city's fleet of cars.

It will fill up at the only hydrogen pump in New England, located between the Public Works and Burlington Electric departments, and demonstrate, its pro- ponents hope, that hydrogen-fueled cars will someday offer a realistic alternative to gasoline.

The station is being built and tested by Proton Energy Systems of Wallingford, Conn. The custom Prius, slated to be a Public Works car, is an internal-combustion hybrid. It is being converted now so that it will run on hydrogen, with water, rather than carbon dioxide, as the byproduct of combustion.

The single Prius, which will run about 80 miles on one hydrogen fill-up, represents "a beginning" for the innovative hydrogen application, he said. The practical problem, he said, is ultimately to make decentralized manufacture of hydrogen less expensive and the hydrogen more readily available.

He said hydrogen is no more dangerous than gasoline in cars.

"The point here," Sanders said, "is to learn."

Foursprung, Toyota Prius, Hydrogen

Source: Fuel Cell Works via Autoblog

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