Planning for the construction of a hydrogen production plant with connecting high-capacity hydrogen refuelling station at AGR Abfallentsorgungs-Gesellschaft Ruhrgebiet mbH (AGR) (a waste management company) has reached an important milestone.

“Today we submitted the necessary documentation to the district government of Münster, thus launching the approval process”, said Wolfgang Best-Theuerkauf, responsible for licensing issues in the AGR hydrogen team. By the end of 2022, the waste-to-energy plant will have its own hydrogen production and a high-capacity hydrogen refuelling station on its premises.

The planned project includes the building of a production plant with electrolysers, compressors and storage tanks. In total, the plant should be able to generate at least 440,000 kg of hydrogen annually at the anticipated operational level. At full capacity, up to 630,000 kg of hydrogen could be produced. The AGR wants to obtain the electricity required for hydrogen production through efficiency measures that go beyond the existing production. The connected high-capacity refuelling station will refuel vehicles with 350 bars and 700 bars every minute and is therefore suitable for refuelling trucks and buses as well as passenger vehicles. In particular, waste vehicles from the company’s own fleet are to be refuelled here along with those of surrounding municipalities.

Joachim Ronge, CEO of AGR: “Based on waste disposal security, we have been producing green electricity and green district heating for years. Green hydrogen will be added to this in the near future. By submitting this application we come one step closer to this goal.”

By thermally recycling regional waste and converting it to hydrogen, the project will be a shining example of a cyclical economy in action: Electricity will be produced in the RZR waste-to-energy plant from waste. Through electrolysis, this electricity is converted to green hydrogen, resulting in emission-free waste collection and contributing to the decarbonisation of logistics and industry.

The ‘Hydrogen production with high-capacity refuelling station’ (H2TP) project is funded under the National Innovation Programme Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology with up to 6.2 million euros by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. The funding guideline is coordinated by NOW GmbH and implemented by Project Management Jülich (PtJ).