Spanish research institute Centro Nacional del Hidrógeno (CNH2) will develop a new mobile hydrogen refuelling station (HRS) as part of the EU’s H2PORTS project to be installed in the Port of Valencia. The pilot is led by the Fundación Valenciaport research institute and involves the Port Authority of Valencia
The mobile hydrogen refuelling station will operate alongside two other pilot operations that will be tested during the project: a cargo-handling vehicle called a reach stacker at MSC Terminal Valencia, and a terminal tractor 4x4 at Valencia Terminal Europa, part of Grimaldi Group. Both vehicles are powered by fuel cells.
The HRS system will include a fixed part, dedicated to receiving and storing hydrogen from an external supplier and compressing it to delivery pressure, and a mobile part for compressed hydrogen storage which will include a hydrogen dispenser for refuelling port machinery. The HRS will include several subsystems: a low-pressure hydrogen tank into which the hydrogen supplier will discharge the molecule, a two-stage water-cooled piston hydrogen compressor with heat exchangers integrated into the system, and a mobile high-pressure storage and hydrogen supply unit that comprises two stages of hydrogen storage at 300 and 450 bar and a heavy vehicle dispenser at 350 bar.
The availability of a supply infrastructure in the port of Valencia will create an environment for testing possible future uses of hydrogen fuel cells in the maritime port sector, which is intended to be exploited beyond the trial period. The pilot will operate for two years starting in 2021.
The station is intended to be a mobile system owing to each of these pilots taking place in different terminals inside the port of Valencia and taking into account that the equipment cannot circulate outside the terminals area.
H2PORTS is part of the EU’s larger Horizon 2020 project and financed to the tune of €4.0M (US$4.5M) by the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) programme, with the objective to test and validate hydrogen technologies on port machinery.
Other companies involved in the project include MSC Terminal Valencia, Grupo Grimaldi, Hyster-Yale, Atena Distretto Alta Tecnologia Energia Ambiente, Ballard Power Systems Europe and Enagás.
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