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The filling station

One of the most noteworthy parts of the HyMove project is the hydrogen fuelling point that has been built at the VéBé van Steijn filling station on the Van Oldenbarneveldtstraat in Arnhem. This is an important prerequisite for the success of the project, as nobody will want to drive a hydrogen-powered car if there are no user-friendly and safe facilities for refuelling with hydrogen.

The hydrogen sold at the filling station is produced onsite. This is done by using a steam-methane reformer, which converts natural gas and steam into hydrogen. The reformer is manufactured by the internationally-renowned company of HyGear in Arnhem. As well as the reformer, the filling station has a compressor or booster, which increases the pressure of the hydrogen coming from the reformer and the storage tanks to 200 bar. The hydrogen is passed to the small storage tanks at the fuelling point. The hydrogen is pumped into the vehicle’s tank at a pressure of 450 bar, using a nozzle that looks something like the ones used for refuelling with LPG. Refuelling takes only a few minutes; about as long as filling a car's tank with petrol or diesel fuel.

The hydrogen filling station meets all the necessary licensing conditions and has all the necessary safety precautions, of course. The dispenser is manufactured by Air Products, a company that has already built more than a hundred hydrogen filling stations all over the world. These hydrogen dispensers are used for refuelling buses, passenger cars, fork lift trucks and submarines. There are already thirty filling stations in California alone, along the hydrogen highway, a motorway route 1221 kilometres long on which some 300 hydrogen-powered cars drive every day.

The licensing procedure was a time-consuming process, because there was no experience in this country of building hydrogen filling stations and the regulations and procedures had to be altered accordingly. At the beginning of 2010 the Nederlandse Normalisatie Instituut [Netherlands Standardisation Institute] (NEN) presented the Guidelines for Hydrogen Filling Stations (NPR 8099:2010), which contain practical measures for the safe storage of hydrogen for vehicles and refuelling with it. Gas producers, construction and installation companies, certification bodies such as KEMA and Kiwa, the GVB, municipalities, fire services, BOVAG, NIFV, RIVM and TNO. were involved in creating the guidelines. The guidelines are at the core of the design and construction of the filling station in Arnhem.

The hydrogen filling station will eventually be relocated to a new site in the industrial park of De Kleefsche Waard, where VéBé van Steijn will be building a hydrogen filling station with a striking futuristic appearance.