Two Hydrogen Refuelling Stations to be Built in Western Germany
Air Products, a world-leading industrial gases company, this week received funding from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) to build two high-capacity, publicly accessible, low-carbon Hydrogen Refuelling Stations (HRS) in Duisburg and Meckenheim.
This marks another milestone as the company continues building a European network of hydrogen refuelling stations that will provide heavy duty and long-range vehicles with low-carbon energy for zero-emission fleets.
The two new stations will be located near Air Products’ current German headquarters in Hattingen, where Air Products has operated for more than 60 years. With the funding received, Air Products will build, own and operate the two high-capacity HRSs capable of fuelling a range of vehicles including medium and heavy-duty classes.
Supplied with the company’s own hydrogen, the refuelling stations will offer a network of reliable and fast HRSs for trucks in Germany and ultimately support the ramping up of zero-emission fleets.
This NRW funding to support Hydrogen Fuelling Infrastructure represents an important advancement in the company’s ongoing efforts to help its customers reduce global carbon emissions and contribute to a more sustainable future.
Ambitious hydrogen plans will facilitate further decarbonisation
As the world’s largest hydrogen supplier, Air Products has hands-on operating experience with over 250 hydrogen fuelling station projects in 20 countries, with the company’s technologies used in over 1.5 million fuelling operations annually.
The company is already planning to build large-scale, renewable hydrogen production facilities in Europe and is committed to increasing its European network of HRSs. In Germany, these two new fueling stations will join the already announced HRS in Hürth-Knapsack.
Funding for the stations was made available as part of NRW’s hydrogen roadmap. NRW has set ambitious goals to decarbonise heavy-duty transportation and has set a target of having 11,000 hydrogen fuel cell trucks in the region by 2030. NRW also has set additional 2030 goals of having 3,800 fuel cell buses for public transportation and 200 hydrogen fuelling stations.
Jorg Homberg, General Manager for Air Products Germany, said: “This funding brings heavy-duty vehicle ready stations to the region. We are excited to be able to support first-mover truck operators looking to test and integrate hydrogen fuel cell trucks into their fleets.”
Mrs. Mona Neubaur, Minister for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy and Deputy Prime Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in the Würst II cabinet also commented: “Hydrogen is an important component for climate-neutral heavy goods transport in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Hydrogen trucks have long ranges and short refuelling times. This will ensure the competitiveness of logistics companies. In order to be able to rely on emission-free drives in heavy goods transport in the future, we must create the conditions now.
“The development of hydrogen infrastructure must be significantly accelerated. We are creating an important incentive for the expansion of the urgently needed filling station network in North Rhine-Westphalia.”
