23 October 2018, Weiterstadt – H2 MOBILITY Deutschland, Shell and Air Liquide today opened symbolically the seventh hydrogen (H2) filling station in Hesse during the Brennstoffzellen Forum Hessen 2018. By commissioning the station at the Shell service station in Weiterstadt, the partners have taken one more step towards a nationwide H2 supply network in Germany.

The service station is located directly on the Weiterstadt motorway exit, a few kilometres from the Darmstädter Kreuz (BAB 5; 67 and 672) junction in the Darmstadt and Groß-Gerau catchment areas. This means that drivers of zero-emission fuel-cell cars now have an additional fuelling option on the important north-south axis between Frankfurt, Mannheim and Karlsruhe.

The owner and operator of the new H2 station at the Shell service station is the joint venture H2 MOBILITY. The filling-station technology was provided by Air Liquide. The hydrogen station is state of the art. Its operation by the driver is intuitive; refuelling is similar to that of conventional vehicles and is completed in three to five minutes. The facility has a capacity of around 200 kilograms of hydrogen – enough to refuel 40 to 50 vehicles a day.

Hydrogen-powered e-mobility reduces CO2 emissions

Hydrogen offers a climate-friendly way to expand the range of fuels in the transport sector: hydrogen produced with renewable energy can significantly reduce climate-damaging CO2 emissions. The operation of an H2-powered fuel-cell vehicle causes neither local pollutants nor carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The vehicles have a range of 500 to 800 kilometres on a full tank of fuel.

Ensuring that hydrogen-powered electric mobility becomes a success story requires an attractive range of fuel-cell vehicles in conjunction with an appropriate supply infrastructure. The expansion of the network of filling stations is making good progress. A Germany-wide network of 100 stations is to be established by 2019. With the addition of Weiterstadt, it will be possible to refuel at 53 stations across Germany.

The European Commission is funding a total of 17 facilities in the ‘trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T CEF)’, including the Weiterstadt station, with a total of 11 million euros, through its ‘Connecting Hydrogen Refuelling Stations’ (COHRS) project.