In most cases you would associate Sainsbury’s with a place to buy meats and honey, but this traditional supermarket has now become the UK’s first supermarket to have a hydrogen refueling station. Located at the Hendon, North London outlet of Sainsbury’s, this public hydrogen refueling station although a small milestone is an important achievement, and is designed to cater to the surge of appeal for environmentally friendly vehicles. If you’re wondering why this large supermarket decided to open a hydrogen refueling station, it wasn’t to be hoarded by fuel cell drivers looking to top up 24/7, but in an effort to make hydrogen refueling much more accessible.

Currently, if you want to top up on hydrogen fuel, your only options are stations at industrial estates, commercial depots and at Heathrow airport. According to Sainsbury’s, one of the reasons they decided to get into this business is to cater to the Hyundai ix35 fuel-cell cars, taxis and delivery vans driving in and around London. Operated by air products, this Sainsbury’s hydrogen fuelling station delivers superior pressure at 350 or 700 bar, which takes roughly three minutes to fill up. Co-founded by Innovate UK and backed by the UK government, this hydrogen refueling station is part of the LHNE (London Hydrogen Network Expansion) project that is exclusively designed to create the country’s only first hydrogen transport system.

Water is the only by-product in hydrogen, which when used can offer motorists the same speed and range as commercial vehicles. Air Products Hydrogen business manager Diana Raine states that making this type of technology easily accessible is a great milestone in encouraging the use of greener and cleaner fuels to curb air pollution and protect the country’s health. As part of a £11 million fund announced by the government, a total of 15 hydrogen refueling stations are scheduled to be setup across the country by 2015.

Benefits of Hydrogen Powered Vehicles

Every time you fill up on petrol, you slowly take away from the world’s supply of fossil fuels, which include petroleum and coal. Owing to the limited supply of thee fuels, with a high level of usage, you can expect them to run out and what’s worse is the fact that there are a few nations that are blessed with an abundance of these fuels, allowing them to dictate prices and supply. The universe is made up of 75 percent hydrogen, but there’s only a small amount available on the surface of the earth.

Not to mention the fact that insurance costs could well be lower due to the low car insurance groups for hydrogen cars, a good solution for young driver car insurance.

Good news is that hydrogen fuel can be manufactured in many ways, and when it is burned, the only thing that is released is water vapor so harmful chemicals such as carbon dioxide are not emitted. Owing to this clean technology, there are several automakers that are keen on developing clean energy powered vehicles such as the Honda FCX, Porsche and the BMW 7 series. There are several methods that can be used to produce hydrogen including removing from water and extracting from natural gas.