Fuel cell no longer powers car wash End of government grant makes hydrogen too costly to use

NORTH Vancouver's hydrogen-powered car wash, part of the province's touted Hydrogen Highway, has not been powered by hydrogen since the beginning of April.

The Easywash eco-friendly car wash at Main Street and Mountain Highway has been running on electricity from the public grid for the past 3* months, ever since government funding for the demonstration project expired.

The facility, which opened in 2006, boasts a number of green features, including water recycling, rainwater collection, the separation of oil from wastewater, a LEED-certified building and other technologies designed to reduce its ecological impact.

In September 2007, with the help of funding from the provincial and federal governments, a $1.2-million industrial fuel cell was installed on site, which used waste hydrogen from nearby chemical manufacturing facilities to supply most of the carwash's peak energy needs. At times of low use, the company even sold power from the cell to the public grid.

The facility has been highlighted by the province as a component of the Hydrogen Highway, a project sponsored by technology firms and government agencies to demonstrate the potential of the gas as a fuel. The project, given special prominence during the 2010 Olympics, also features hydrogen-powered buses and light vehicles, fuelling stations and other components.

The car wash still appears on the Hydrogen Highway website and, as of Tuesday, the Easywash website still stated it was powered by the gas.

But on March 31, the fuel cell's funding expired, the device was shut down and the car wash reverted to drawing power from BC Hydro. The cell will be dismantled over the next couple of weeks.

The fuel cell was not self-sustaining, economically, said Colin Armstrong, whose company, Sacré-Davey Innovations, purified and compressed the waste hydrogen used in the project. The gas simply isn't used widely enough for the costs to stay down, he said.

About 70 per cent of the fuel cell's costs were covered by a grant from provincial and federal governments.

The car wash project was only intended to show the concept could work, which it did, said Armstrong.

Laura-lee Normandeau, co-founder of Easywash, said the car wash remains eco-friendly due to its other low-impact practices. The company's website just hasn't been updated, she said.

Source: James Weldon, North Shore News