Murray Hill, New Jersey, U.S., August 22, 2008 – Like summer, all good things must come to an end. After nearly two weeks of travelling cross country with the Hydrogen Road Tour, Linde North America will cross the finish line with other tour participants on Saturday in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park.
Linde North America, a member of The Linde Group, one of the world’s largest hydrogen producers and suppliers, is celebrating the end of a successful road trip, supplying green hydrogen to fuel BMW Hydrogen 7 Series cars. Linde and BMW are two of 11participants in the national road tour organized by the U.S. Department of Transportation and Dept. of Energy, and two industry associations: the California Fuel Cell Partnership and the National Hydrogen Association.
“We hope the end of this tour represents the beginning of a national conversation about how Linde can help develop a safe and reliable hydrogen energy infrastructure in the U.S.,” said Mike McGowan, head of Hydrogen Solutions for Linde North America.
“Linde is an expert in designing and delivering hydrogen refuelling technology. We have equipped more public hydrogen refuelling stations than any other company – over 70 stations in 15 countries. We also have performed over 120,000 hydrogen vehicle refuellings – the most of any hydrogen supplier. We believe our participation in this tour proved that it’s practical for average citizens to drive hydrogen cars and refuel easily,” said McGowan, who is also the chairman of the National Hydrogen Association.
Since April 2007, some California residents have had a chance to see the Linde liquid hydrogen refuelling technology first-hand at one of California’s first hydrogen fuelling stations. The station is located at BMW’s facility in Oxnard, where the hydrogen is used to refuel Hydrogen 7 Series cars.
“The Oxnard station and the fuelling stops along the Hydrogen Road Tour, gave people a chance to see that the refuelling technology is very similar to what they’re used to using today at their local gas station,” McGowan said.
Besides refuelling automobiles, Linde has partnered on many projects to supply hydrogen and fuelling technology to power forklift trucks at warehouses and distribution centers. A recent nine month trial at an ACE Hardware distribution center near Sacramento earlier this year has shown that the hydrogen-powered forklift trucks had better acceleration and overall performance compared with traditional lead acid battery-powered vehicles and that refueling technology was easy for truck operators to use.
“Linde’s partnerships with automakers, oil companies, forklift and fuel cell manufacturers will help develop not only a hydrogen infrastructure and hydrogen powered automobiles but pave the way for other hydrogen-powered applications used by consumers today and which contribute to a greener world and cleaner environment,” McGowan said.
The Linde Group has more than 50,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2007 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.3 billion (USD 18.7 billion). The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards earnings-based and sustainable growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.
Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment – in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development.
