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Filling up at our hydrogen station
8
September
2017
At our Dassenveld distribution centre in Halle, we’ve had a hydrogen station since 2012. It produces hydrogen using renewable energy from the wind turbines and solar panels there. And we use that green energy as fuel. The station has a production capacity of 2.7 kg hydrogen per hour and can store up to 85 kg of it.
Producing hydrogen, storing it and converting it back into electricity
The installation produces hydrogen via electrolysis based on green energy. We use the hydrogen for two things. First, an increasing number of pallet transporters in the distribution centre run on hydrogen. Second, our company fleet already counts 18 hydrogen cars which fill up regularly at the station. And that’s not all: the 120 kW fuel cell works as a buffer. The surplus green energy is stored as hydrogen. When we don’t generate enough power, we convert the hydrogen back into electricity.
Don Quichote
We also carry out all kinds of tests at our hydrogen station. We do them for the Don Quichote project, a European research project into the potential of hydrogen as an energy buffer. What are these tests for? We mainly want to prove that it's technically and economically feasible to store and transport green power. And that hydrogen is ideal for doing that on a large scale. Dimitri adds, “We already had experience with hydrogen in transport and logistics, but you can see that we’re taking another step forward with the hydrogen fuel station.”
With this initiative, we contribute to the following Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
