Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | June 24, 2019 | wbjournal.com A Holliston startup wants Massachusetts businesses and residents driving fuel cell vehicles BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor Hydrogen power PHOTOS/MATT WRIGHT F O C U S E N T R E P R E N E U R S & I N N O V A T I O N A certain fuel can power vehicles without the harmful emissions of gasoline or diesel, and with a longer range and far quicker fill-up time than battery-powered electric cars. Hydrogen, or fuel cell, vehicles might be the next big thing to wean drivers off greenhouse gas-emitting vehicles. Holliston's Agen Environmental wants to be a major player to help get there. e startup wants to add hydrogen fueling stations across the area and create hydrogen from clean sources, unlike what it says the process is typically like in creating the fuel. Agen's president, Eric LaVoie, isn't talking about a timeline too much in the future, either. "We're probably six months out, eight months out," LaVoie says of adding hydrogen fueling stations in Massachusetts. Hydrogen power still has a long way to go before its nearly as ubiquitous as even electric-car charging stations, never mind gasoline. e U.S. Department of Energy lists no public-use hydrogen fueling in the United States outside of Cali- fornia, where there are less than 50; and 2,300 hydrogen vehicles were sold in the U.S. last year, according to the industry website insideevs.com. Even compared to plug-in electric cars, with the likes of the Toyota Prius, fuel cell cars are very hard to come by. Plug-in cars outsold their hydrogen counterparts 157 to 1, according to insideevs.com. "ey key to hydrogen fuel is, 'Can you do this effectively?'" said Greg Sirok- man, a chemistry professor at Went- worth Institute of Technology in Boston. Jumping on the trend early Hydrogen fueling stations can't be added too simply, and transporting, storing and filling a vehicle with a gas- eous substance instead of a fuel are all hurdles to more widespread use of fuel cell vehicles. LaVoie and Agen Environmental ar- en't looking at the market today in Mas- sachusetts, but at what advancements and demand and other areas indicate could soon come here. Hydrogen is very plentiful – aer all, it's a major component of water – but it is oen made by burning natural gas or even coal. Agen wants to make hydrogen through means that don't emit pollutants like those methods do. e company is in the process of buying two bio- mass plants in upstate New York using wood or other plant material to create hydrogen. Owning those plants gives Agen lower production costs than competitors, LaVoie said. Agen, which was launched in 2017, plans to have those plants fully operational by next February. LaVoie may face long odds in getting hydrogen stations across the area to change the type of vehicles we drive soon, but he sees more potential in fuel cell vehicles than anything else, particularly for trucking. "Hydrogen is probably more formidable to replace diesel in the industry than anything," he said. "Diesel is dirty." Agen plans to manufacture hydrogen fuel cells in Massachusetts, and hopes to create hydrogen it can sell to industrial distributors, a sector of the industry where it could grow if passenger cars are slow to grow here. LaVoie isn't deterred from a low level of public awareness at this point. "A lot of people don't know we even exist," he said. Hydrogen hitting the road To anyone driving or riding in a hydrogen vehicle, a few things are instantly apparent. For one, the vehicle is virtually silent – like an electric vehicle – running not on a combustion engine but on a series of batteries with virtually no moving parts. Unlike liquid gasoline, filling a vehicle with hydrogen means filling with gas- eous vapors. e only emission is water. Technological advancements have dropped prices of hydrogen and made it more feasible to store hydrogen for fueling stations. "All of that has only come together recently," said Pratap Rao, a mechanical engineering professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Passenger vehicles have come to the market only in recent years, with carmakers creating new vehicles to be filled in just around five minutes with ranges of 300 miles or more. Fast-filling times and longer ranges are both benefits compared to battery-pow- ered electric cars. Hyundai – which said last year it wants to produce 700,000 hydrogen vehicles annually by 2030 – sells the sport-utility Nexo. Toyota and Honda sell hydrogen sedans, while General Motors, Volkswagen and others have hydrogen vehicles in production. ose vehicles can't be bought in this area, though. Honda and Hyundai sell their vehicles only in California, and Toyota's can be bought only in Califor- nia and Hawaii. While the industry hasn't come to Massachusetts in a mainstream way yet, it has made better inroads in California, Europe and parts of Asia. London announced in May, for exam- ple, its iconic double-decker buses will soon run on hydrogen, and Germany began running a hydrogen-powered train last fall. South Korea said last year it plans to invest more than $2 billion to support hydrogen-powered transit sys- tem buses, a network of fueling stations, Public hydrogen fueling stations are still very rare in the United States, counting as a small fraction of alternative-fuel stations. Hydrogen stations are few, but spreading Note: Starting in 2011, electric charge equipment was counted by the outlet rather than by the geographical location. This is different than other fuels, which only count the geographical location regardless of how many dispensers or nozzles are on site. Source: U.S. Department of Energy Electric fueling stations Hydrogen fueling stations 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 61,067 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 60 70,000 70 Eric LaVoie, the president of Holliston's Agen Environmental, sees hydrogen as the fuel that will replace diesel.

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