“This is the beginning of some fantastic technology,” then US President George Bush said in 2005 as he refuelled a General Motors fuel cell minivan with hydrogen from a Shell station in Washington – the first retail hydrogen and gasoline fuelling station in North America.
“Hydrogen is the wave of the future,” he continued, “And this country is going to have to use technology to diversify away from hydrocarbons. One way to diversify away from hydrocarbons is to use hydrogen, the byproduct of which will be water and not exhausts which pollute the air.
“I’m excited to be a part of this technological revolution that’s going to change the country. It won’t happen overnight, but it’s coming.”
And President Bush was right, it wouldn’t happen overnight but it’s definitely happening now, 16 years later, and Shell has been quietly working away at this the entire time, even longer in fact.
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