By  Christopher Tan

A REFUELLING station that makes its own fuel is the promise to be found in British Petroleum's (BP) second hydrogen pump in Singapore.

The station, expected to be up and running by the first quarter of next year, will produce its own hydrogen gas by using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms, a process known as electrolysis.
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It's one step ahead of the first hydrogen station that was opened officially yesterday. Located in a regular BP petrol kiosk in Upper East Coast Road, its supply of hydrogen arrives in trucks.

BP's general manager for hydrogen, Mr Michael Jones, told The Straits Times that the main cost of hydrogen fuel is transportation.

'We produce enough hydrogen at our oil refineries to refuel 10 million vehicles. And the cost is the same as petrol before taxes,' he said.

'With electricity costing about 15 Singapore cents per kilowatt-hour here, we envisage that hydrogen produced through electrolysis will cost $11 to $12 per kg.'

The figure, which excludes tax and profit, is half the $25-per-kg rate chalked up at the East Coast station, said Mr Jones.

The environmentally-friendly fuel is being used to power six fuel-cell Mercedes-Benz cars on a government-sponsored trial here.

Besides electrolysis, hydrogen can be made from natural gas. BP sees this as the most economical method, but Mr Jones noted that piped gas is currently unavailable at the high-tech one-north hub in Buona Vista, where the second pump will be sited.

Like the East Coast pump, it will cost about $1 million to build.

Mr Jones said BP is the world's leading supplier of automotive hydrogen and operates 10 stations, with four producing the gas where they're sited.

After Singapore, BP will open a station in Australia later this year, with the United States and China next on the list.

'By then, we'd have in excess of 20 stations,' Mr Jones said, and they are in such European cities as Barcelona, Berlin, Hamburg, London, Munich, Porto and Stuttgart.

'That is more demonstration projects than any other energy company. It reflects our approach of 'learning by doing'.'.