August 9, 2018, Kassel-Lohfelden – H2 Mobility Deutschland and its shareholders Shell and Air Liquide have today jointly opened the first hydrogen (in short H2) refuelling station in the Kassel district – the fifth in the state of Hesse. With the refuelling station at Shell SVG Autohof Lohfelden, the partners are taking a further step towards a comprehensive H2 supply network in Germany.
The service station is located directly at the Kassel-Mitte intersection of federal motorways 7 and 49, and close to motorways 44 and 38. This now provides drivers of zero-emission fuel-cell vehicles with an additional refuelling opportunity on the important north-south axis between Frankfurt and Hanover as well.
The principal and operator of the new H2 refuelling station is the joint venture H2 Mobility, which is establishing a hydrogen infrastructure in Germany. The Shell SVG Autohof is owned by SVG Hessen. The refuelling station technology comes from gas and technology company Air Liquide.
The hydrogen refuelling station conforms to the state of the art. Self-service operation by drivers is intuitive; refuelling is similar to conventional vehicles and takes three to five minutes. The facility holds around 200 kg of hydrogen – enough to refuel 40 to 50 vehicles a day.
E-mobility with hydrogen reduces CO2 emissions
Hydrogen offers the opportunity of augmenting the fuel offering in the transport sector in an environmentally-friendly way: since with the help of hydrogen, which is produced with renewable energy, climate-damaging CO2 emissions can be considerably reduced. Running an H2-powered fuel-cell vehicle produces neither local pollutants nor carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The range of these vehicles is between 500 and 800 kilometres per tankful.
In order to turn electomobility with hydrogen into a success story, an attractive proposition of fuel-cell vehicles as well as a corresponding supply infrastructure is required. The expansion of the requisite refuelling station network is making good progress. By 2019, a network of 100 refuelling stations is to be established across Germany. With Lohfelden you can now refuel at 44 stations already.
The EUR 1.4 million facility is being supported by the European Commission in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T CEF), in the “Connecting Hydrogen Refuelling Stations” (COHRS) project.
The parties involved commented on the opening of the H2 refuelling station at Kassel-Lohfelden:
Thomas Zengerly, chairman of the management board Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH:
“Fuel cell technology is a promising technology, and H2 a fuel of the future. We’re assuming that this alternative drive system will play an increasingly important role from 2020 onwards in markets such as Germany, the UK, Benelux, the USA and Japan. We at Shell are on course.”
Eugen Jung, chairman of the supervisory board, SVG Hessen eG:
“SVG Hessen – as a service provider and partner of the transport and logistics sector – welcomes the expansion of the fuel offering at Shell SVG Autohof Lohfeldener Rüssel with environmentally-friendly hydrogen. This makes the service station more attractive.”
Markus Schewitza, managing director of Air Liquide Advanced Technologies GmbH:
“Hydrogen is today one of our best solutions to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Hydrogen has notably the potential to efficiently decarbonize the transport sector which is one of the major source of pollution in our cities. Air Liquide is proud to contribute, together with the key private and public players, to the building of the biggest hydrogen infrastructure in Europe.”
Nikolas Iwan, managing director of H2 Mobility Deutschland GmbH:
“Germany is on the way to becoming a pioneer when it comes to electomobility with hydrogen. We are currently building the backbone of the hydrogen infrastructure with the first 100 refuelling stations by 2019. We are locating the stations where the customers need them.”
Uwe Jäger, mayor of Lohfelden:
“Hydrogen and fuel-cell vehicles are a contribution to the success of the energy transition in the mobility sector as well. So our community has supported the construction of this refuelling station.”
Holger Schach, managing director of Regionalmanagement Nordhessen:
“On the journey from the north to the south as well as from the west to the east of Germany, many motorists will in future be able to fill up with us in Northern Hesse – we’re proud of that, which strengthens us as a mobility region in the middle of Germany”.
Press contact:
Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH
Axel Pommeränke, +49 (0)40 6324 5290, shellpresse@shell.com
H2 Mobility Deutschland GmbH
Sybille Riepe, +49 (0170) 58 70 317, riepe@h2-mobility.de
Air Liquide Deutschland GmbH
Nicola Blumhofer, tel. +49 (0)211 6699 4242, nicola.blumhofer@airliquide.com
SVG Hessen
Martin Staudt, +49 (0)69 97963 100, info@svg-hessen.de