First Public Hydrogen Station to be Built at LA Airport

The nation's first compressed-hydrogen fueling station for public use will be built at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as the result of a lease approved today by the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners.

The lease calls for Praxair, Inc. of Danbury, Conn., to design, engineer, equip, construct and operate a 600-square-foot facility that will be a prototype of a commercial automobile fueling station.

The $1,580,048 state-of-the-art fueling station will be the first facility in the United States to showcase the generation, compression, storage and dispensing of compressed-hydrogen fuel in a limited-production capacity, retail-friendly environment.

Praxair is funding construction by spending $550,000 of its own funds, and will receive grants of $351,000 from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, of $499,048 from the U.S. Department of Energy, and $180,000 from British Petroleum.

The new fueling station will support the recent introduction of hydrogen-fuel-cell demonstration vehicles by major automotive manufacturers, as well as LAWA's integration of hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles into its own fleet.

Currently, more than 50 percent of LAWA's vehicle fleet is comprised of alternative-fuel vehicles and LAWA is currently in negotiations to obtain demonstration hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles for its fleet. The new facility also will serve other Los Angeles City departments with hydrogen-powered vehicles, as well as private customers and other public agencies.

The lease agreement is for three years, with the option for Praxair to lease the site from LAWA for another two years. No rent would be charged during the first three years, offset by the reversionary value of the improvements that Praxair will construct and turn over to LAWA at the end of the initial three years. Praxair would pay $27,355 annually if it exercised the lease's options during the fourth and fifth years.

The new fueling station will be built on a portion of an on-airport, alternative-fuel vehicles site on World Way West, where facilities for dispensing liquefied and compressed natural gas (LNG/CNG) already exist.

Terms of the lease call for Praxair to complete design and construction no later than six months following commencement of the lease, which is expected to begin in the near future.