Industrial gases company Air Products has 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 refueling stations (HRSs) in Duisburg and Meckenheim, Germany.
This marks another milestone as the company continues building a European HRS network 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, Air Products will build, own and operate the two high-capacity HRSs capable of fueling a range of vehicles including medium- and heavy-duty classes. Supplied with the company’s own hydrogen, the refueling stations will offer an HRS network for trucks in Germany and ultimately support the ramping up of zero-emission fleets.
This NRW funding to support hydrogen fueling 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.
Air Products has hands-on operating experience with over 250 HRS projects in 20 countries, with the company’s technologies used in over 1.5 million fueling operations annually. The company is already planning to build large-scale, renewable hydrogen production facilities in Europe and is committed to increasing its European HRS network. 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 goals to decarbonize heavy-duty transportation and has a target of 11,000 hydrogen fuel cell trucks in the region by 2030. It also has set 2030 goals of having 3,800 fuel cell buses for public transportation and 200 hydrogen fueling stations.
“This funding brings heavy-duty vehicle-ready stations to the region,” says Jorg Homberg, general manager for Air Products Germany. “We are excited to be able to support first-mover truck operators looking to test and integrate hydrogen fuel cell trucks into their fleets.”
“Hydrogen is an important component for climate-neutral heavy goods transport in North Rhine-Westphalia,” adds Mona Neubaur, minister for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy and deputy prime minister of NRW. “Hydrogen trucks have long ranges and short refueling 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.”
