Hardly any cars, hardly any petrol stations. Cars with hydrogen drive are a rarity in Germany, and Refuel sometimes complicated. Oliver Ristau has dared to anyway.
Quiet he is. The fuel cell stack under the bonnet of the Hyundai Nexo is just a fine Buzz to hear. Otherwise, the Mini-SUV, driving with hydrogen, just to listen to the rolling noise of the tyre.
The Refueling pitfalls, as on that day in may, as the Nexo controls during a test tour of Germany in Flensburg, the northernmost water fuel dispenser Germany. The Shell Station opposite shows, for the fuel the green light is visible on a lamp on the Container in which the water is compressed fuel for refuelling at 700 bar.
However, although the nozzle is properly connected with the 156 gallon Tank of the vehicle, flows no Gas. Also, the display of the column is not responding. That is more than unfortunate.
At a range of according to the onboard computer 120 kilometers of the hydrogen would not be enough in the Tank, so that the test car can reach the next Station in Germany, in Hamburg, 150 miles further South.
Empty Tank
You can reach the Service number on the fuel card, which all of the hydrogen driver of H2 to obtain Mobility, the operator of the filling station network in Germany is. A member of the technical staff of the company explained that the hydrogen tanks were almost empty.
Too little pressure: In Flensburg, the car had to be refueled by remote control
The pressure is no longer sufficient for the automatic filling by pump. However, the staff can help. By a Computer, and from Berlin he connects with the plant in Flensburg. He now had access to the hydrogen tanks, he explains, and could mobilize at a distance the Rest, and in the vehicle fuel tank. Only the tap on the car must be latched.
This is not the only Problem, to fight with the driver of fuel-cell vehicles have. An Update of the Software to the pillars laid out in may of this year, a number of stations to a grinding halt, were of no use, only manually with the remote control of the H2 Mobility hydrogen.
In addition, the System is sensitive. So is performed before refueling, always a test push in order to measure the pressure and quantity of hydrogen in the car tank. For this, the nozzle must be inserted in socket correctly on the tank, so that a secure connection between the Station and the Tank. This is not the case, can result in the recoil of the gun to the failure of the entire system.
H2-Mobility promises to be available 24 hours a day for the motorists and to solve problems. Almost daily customers would call, told staff Pierre Heidepriem. Often it is simply a question of when filling up to assist.
Sales increases
In principle, the Refueling of hydrogen is straightforward and takes only a few minutes. And the demand is increasing. The paragraph has eight within two years, tripled and will continue to rise. “In the entire year of 2018, we have vertankt almost 70 tonnes in H2,” says H2-Mobility spokeswoman Sybille Riepe. “We expect to see a doubling in the next two years, in 2019, so about 140 tons, and in 2020, around 280 tons of.”
Look under the hood: the fuel cell stack dominates
A total of 70 gas stations there are in Germany, twice as many as two years ago. By 2020 100, 2021, then 140. The Nexo is one of currently three available in Germany fuel cell models, in addition to the Mirai from Toyota and the GLC from Mercedes-Benz. The range is on a full Tank – depending on driving about 500 to 650 km and about twice as much as the predecessor, the ix35 behavior.
A few hundred fuel cell vehicles on Germany’s roads. The majority of company fleets or driving services such as Smart shuttles, in Hamburg 20 Mirai are. To do this, the public transport comes. As in the case of the Stadtwerke Mainz want to test from the fall of in addition to four electric four hydrogen buses in line operation.
Hydrogen for the gas network
The fuel for one of the largest water supplies electrolysis-production facilities in Europe, operated at the edge of the city in the energy Park in Mainz by the city and the gases specialists Linde. The three electrolysers will need in the duration of operation a total capacity of 4.2 megawatts (MW). Behind the premises of the Stadtwerke operate four wind turbines, each with 2.0 MW power, the supply power calculation.
Linde technician Martin Neuberger in front of an electrolyzer
“Currently, ten percent of the total production of the petrol stations,” explains the person responsible for the Linde plant engineer Martin Neuberger. “20 percent is fed into the regional gas network and the Rest of the industry declined.”
The feed-in into the gas grid offers a large potential. In many regions of Germany, it is allowed, up to ten percent hydrogen in the grid. Hydrogen can be used as natural gas for heating. So green power is transferred in the heat sector.
High Taxes
The Mainz-based electrolyzer is a rarity. “Until now, storage technologies such as water are loaded substance with significant taxes and charges”, criticized a spokesperson Riepe. “Therefore, the H2 Mobility green water can offer fabric only at a few locations. At other sites, we use ‘waste-H2’ from the chemical industry, e.g. in Hamburg to Stade.”
This is hydrogen, which is obtained during the production of chlorine and burned. It is clear that conventional Industrial hydrogen is produced via steam reforming from natural gas, from a climate protection reasons, it is not sustainable. In Leuna, Linde a, therefore, for the production of fuel in this process, biomethane instead of natural gas.
Green Certificates
In order to meet the need for clean water is a substance, it is not enough. The operator, therefore, certificates. For green hydrogen certificates, the EU launched in the spring of the pilot system “CertifHY GO”. With the gas manufacturer, Air Liquide, Air Products and electricity producer Uniper.
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The Gas with hydrogen
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The Gas with hydrogen
The principle: The producers produce the hydrogen using green electricity, and with a certificate to prove. This happens for example in the Netherlands, where corporate water to produce a fuel with wind power. The green Gas produced is then sold as ‘grey’, normal hydrogen on-site.
In the same order of magnitude, the station acquires the normal hydrogen by the certificate of quasi-green. So the climate effect of the hydrogen can be transferred from one location to another. And hydrogen-motorists can have peace of mind on the Gas, because you know that just as much fuel as you procedure, was somewhere produced in Europe more climate friendly.