Hydrogen powers food truck meetup at Sacramento's Tahoe Park
An unusual fuel was being used to cook up the tacos, gyros, and hefty fries at a food truck meetup in Sacramento.
The mobile food vendors attending a monthly meetup in Tahoe Park typically use gas generators to run their trucks. But this Friday night, they tapped into a fuel source that uses the lightest element on earth for electricity - hydrogen.
"Today is an example of how we can use alternative energy distribution to power all these food trucks," said City Councilmember Eric Guerra.
The energy comes from 18 pounds of hydrogen loaded in a pickup truck in "an 80kw fuel cell," according to Debby Byrne of Toyota Research and Development. Crews say there is no risk of explosion.
Sacramento's fire marshal was even on hand, checking to make sure everything was safe. Unlike gas-powered engines, there's no noise, and the only tailpipe emission is water.
"When people are trying to have a good time at the food trucks event, they don't want to hear 8 generators going on at one time," Guerra said.
Byrne said this method also eliminates the smell of a gas generator mixing with the smell of food. Food truck operators and customers say they really notice a difference.
"We have a more peaceful environment," said Klaus Sewell of SactoMofo. "There's not so much white noise and 'yaaaaar' going on."
But the green technology has seen some setbacks. A company that was supposed to build hydrogen big-rig fueling stations in Sacramento went bankrupt, and people who own hydrogen cars sometimes report long waits at the few stations that sell the fuel.
Clean air advocates say hydrogen is a key component in getting more zero-emission vehicles on California roadways and creating a hydrogen highway across the country.
"Ten years from now, I'm hoping by that point not only will California have a great corridor north-south, but we're going to spread out to the east as well," Byrne said.
Sacramento Regional Transit is also looking at using hydrogen to power some of its buses, with that fuel being generated by sewage at the regional wastewater treatment plant.
