German developer Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies has put in place the world’s first liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) supply chain, the company says.

A recently opened hydrogen filling station on the Siemens’ Erlangen campus in the southern German state of Bavaria receives green hydrogen bound to an LOHC carrier, which is stored at the station in underground tanks.

The hydrogen is produced using a proton-exchange membrane electrolyser at Hydrogenious’s headquarters in Erlangen before being stored in a benzyltoluene LOHC and transported in standard fuel tankers to the site.

A release system separates the hydrogen molecules from the carrier before they are used to refuel vehicles.

“With yesterday's opening of the hydrogen filling station in Erlangen… we are able to announce that the world's first full LOHC supply chain with green hydrogen as fuel for mobility is implemented,” says Hydrogenious.

95 – Hydrogen filling stations in Germany

The construction and operation of the hydrogen filling station was overseen by infrastructure developer H2 Mobility Deutschland. The project received nearly €1mn ($1.05mn) in funding from Germany’s National Innovation Program for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology.

Cars, light commercial vehicles and buses can refuel at the station at 350 bar or 700 bar pressure. The city is rolling out a fleet of various hydrogen vehicles, including refuse collection trucks and buses that will use the station to refuel.

“The opening of the hydrogen filling station gives us an additional opportunity to convert the city's vehicle fleet to emission-free drive types in the future and thus make an important contribution to climate protection. We therefore want to expand our pool of special vehicles with two [new] fuel-cell vehicles in the coming years and examine further conversion in this area,” says Erlangen city mayor Jorg Volleth.

There are now 95 hydrogen filling stations in Germany, 21 of which are in Bavaria. 

Nascent technology

Making an LOHC involves attaching hydrogen to carrier molecules and then re-extracting pure hydrogen at the destination. LOHCs are similar in form to oil products and can be carried on product tankers on land and sea.

Hydrogenious says the use of the technology can greatly reduce the cost of green hydrogen at the pump compared to other technologies. It is building the world’s largest plant for storing 1,800t/yr of green hydrogen in LOHC form in Dormagen with €9mn of funding from the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Jera—a joint venture between Japanese utilities Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power—has invested €15mn in Hydrogenious.

Jera hopes its investment in the company will allow it to acquire knowledge of LOHC technology and support the development of LOHC plants in Europe, North America and Asia.

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Author: Tom Young