Air Products designs 24-hour self service hydrogen fuelling station
Triple first for Air Products in Europe: Convenient, cost effective and sustainably-sourced hydrogen infrastructure becomes a reality
Wilhelm Sassenberg, Air Products, explains the hydrogen fuelling station model series 100.
Air Products will install and operate the first ever 24-hour self service hydrogen fuelling station in Hürth, Germany. The station, based at the Infraserv-Knapsack Chemical Park, will be in regular operation by March 2010, when it will initially supply hydrogen to two buses run by the local council.
The station will allow bus drivers to refuel their vehicles around the clock and for future use, Air Products will design and incorporate the safety systems to allow it to be used more broadly for hydrogen vehicles, 24 hours a day.
“Our ultimate objective is to make filling up with hydrogen as normal for users as filling up with diesel, petrol or natural gas anywhere else” explains Ian Williamson, Hydrogen Energy Systems Director Air Products Europe.
The project also represents a first step towards using hydrogen from the chemical industry as a fuel for vehicles. The region offers ideal conditions for developing hydrogen infrastructure as seven local industrial plants produce hydrogen as a by-product Just 8% of the hydrogen by-product generated by the industrial plants could operate more than 500 buses or 40,000 cars full time. The Hürth station has been designed as an innovative modular fuelling system which marks a significant step change that Air Products has taken towards rolling out a hydrogen infrastructure.
Ian Williamson explains: “Until now hydrogen fuelling stations have been unique, custom-made installations which have a high price. We aim, where appropriate, to commence cost-effective series production across all our markets on the basis of the Hürth fuelling system and thereby eliminate one of the main obstacles to a universal roll out of hydrogen infrastructure.” Crucially, the modular fuelling system means that it is now possible to supply fuelling stations with hydrogen not only from a tanker, but also, at a later date, by pipeline.
Air Products is now looking to introduce this technology to the UK. Diana Raine, Hydrogen Energy Systems Sales Manager, Air Products added: “This is an extremely exciting development for Air Products. We are now looking to work with several local authorities in the UK who would like to take advantage of this modular technology. The Hürth project is a glimpse of what we can help councils to achieve here if they are willing to make the investment.”
Air Products is the world’s largest supplier of hydrogen and a leader in applications in the fields of hydrogen production, supply and safety. Air Products has played a leading role in the development of hydrogen as an alternative fuel of the future. This is documented, among other things, by more than 50 patents in the field of hydrogen fuelling technology. The company provides the necessary technology and infrastructure for the hydrogen fuelling of cars, buses, trucks, forklift trucks, aircraft, trains, cell towers and even submarines. Its references include the hydrogen fuelling stations for the bus shuttle service at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the fuelling technology for five fuel cell buses used by Transport for London, supplying the entire hydrogen needs of the German navy’s fuel cell submarines and the largest number of hydrogen fuelling stations in the UK.
Air Products has experience of more than 100 hydrogen fuelling stations in 14 countries. More than 120,000 safe fuellings a year are currently completed at the company’s fuelling stations – and this figure is increasing rapidly.
