First hydrogen refuelling station for heavy vehicles

AUSTRALIA’S first hydrogen refuelling station for heavy vehicles has now opened at Port Kembla in NSW.

Opened by Australian owned industrial gases company, Coregas, the $2 million H2Station was built with the assistance of a $500,000 NSW Government grant and is able to rapidly refuel up to 10 vehicles daily.

Coregas says its H2Station is a low-cost commercial solution capitalising on existing infrastructure aimed to seed a future network of hydrogen fuelled transport.

The company hopes it will help facilitate the introduction of zero emissions hydrogen fuel cell trucks to the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region.

“Locating H2Station alongside Coregas’ existing hydrogen production plant and transport hub for bulk hydrogen in Port Kembla created operational and cost efficiencies,” said Alan Watkins, executive general manager at Coregas in Australia.

“The H2Station will allow hydrogen trucks to access the majority of the Illawar-

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fuel passenger vehicles, have around 20kg/day capacity. This hydrogen dispensing system has the capacity to discharge 400 kilograms of fuel cell grade hydrogen. “The hydrogen system utilises our world-leading compression, storage and dispensing equipment specifically designed and optimised for Port Kembla,” said Stewart Anderson, Haskel Hydrogen business development manager (APAC).

Minister for Regional NSW, Tara Moriarty, said that with heavy road transport being a major carbon-emitting sector, Port Kembla is now leading the way towards a more diverse energy future with the opening of the Coregas H2 Station.

Coregas was one of 15 projects to share in $2.1 million in funding through Round Four of the Port Kembla Community Investment Fund.

The fund is a competitive, merit-based program that financially supports projects that revitalise Port Kembla and surrounding areas for the benefit of the community.

Minister for the Illawarra and the South Coast, Ryan Park, commented on Port Kembla’s position in the emerging hydrogen sector in Australia.

ra-Shoalhaven region and reach metropolitan Sydney.”

Transitioning Coregas’ diesel truck fleet to FCEVs is a cornerstone of the company’s decarbonisation roadmap. “Coregas’ diesel truck fleet travels almost 6 million kilometres every year,” added Watkins.

“That’s equivalent to driving 150 times around the world, which contributes to 54 per cent of Coregas’ carbon emissions.”

Working with project part- ner Haskel, the H2Station will compress hydrogen from the existing Coregas plant up to 500bar, enabling supply into the 350bar cylinders on board the FCEV.

Existing hydrogen refuelling stations, designed to re-

“The NSW Government is proud to have supported this world-leading project to refuel Australia’s first hydrogen-powered heavy road vehicles.

“The H2Station will be the first practical piece of enabling infrastructure towards de-carbonising the region’s 7000 heavy vehicles as we move towards a cleaner, greener future.”

“The H2 Station will facilitate the introduction of zero emissions hydrogen powered trucks to the Illawarra-Shoalhaven to demonstrate the technology’s potential to improve energy security, create jobs and investment, and decarbonise the transport sector,” he said.

“Zero emissions trucks will be able to refuel at the Coregas refuelling station using hydrogen produced at Port Kembla and showcase the viability of introducing hydrogen-powered fleet vehicles to greater NSW.”