Air Products provides hydrogen fueling station to Shell in Germany

9 September 2012

Air Products has provided a SmartFuel hydrogen fueling station to Shell Germany, contributing to the expansion of Germany’s network of hydrogen fueling stations. The station opened in August at Hamburg-Bramfeld, Germany, and is integrated into an existing Shell fueling station located at Bramfelder Chaussee.

The SmartFuel fueling station is capable of providing 40 kg of hydrogen per day, enabling a fleet of 50 vehicles to be fueled. The modular station can be extended depending on the demand.

The station is open 24 hours a day; vehicles take three minutes to fuel at a pressure of 700 bar, meaning they can fuel anytime and just as quickly as a conventional vehicle. The hydrogen used to power the vehicles is produced as a by-product of industrial process and brought to the site in a tanker.

Air Products has signed a letter of intent (LoI) with the Clean Energy Partnership in Berlin, and the plan aims to extend the existing infrastructure up to 50 fueling stations by 2015. The hydrogen stations are to be built in metropolitan regions and along corridors connecting these regions, thereby supporting the initial roll-out of fuel cell vehicles.

As well as recently also opening a fueling station in Freiburg, as co-ordinator of the EU-funded HyTEC project Air Products recently opened a new fueling station at Heathrow airport to fuel a set of hydrogen taxis. In Spain, Air Products recently provided the hydrogen for the fueling station in Barcelona, which powered a Honda FCX Clarity on a journey across the city in June. The journey was part of the International Conference “Alternative Powertrain Systems” organized by the Sociedad de Técnicos de Automoción.