JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Special Issue Composites for mobility - May 2020 - 60

Fuelling the future of mobility with hydrogen

The Coridia iLint hydrogen train (source: Alstom)

Sinopec and Air Liquide opened two hydrogen stations in Shanghai, China (source: Air Liquide)

Germany: the European
leader in hydrogen stations
Germany's interest in hydrogen
goes back to 2000, when the
government decided to gradually abandon nuclear energy in
power generation. The country
confirmed its intent in 2011 by
announcing it would definitively
close all its nuclear power plants
by 2022 at the latest. In 2007,
the National Innovation Program
for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells was
formed and a budget of €1.4 billion was adopted for the 20072016 period. This made it possible
to raise the number of hydrogen
service stations from 15 in 2013
to more than 60 today. Although
light hydrogen vehicles are still
under-developed in Germany, the
country can be proud of its progress on hydrogen trains. Since
September 2018, the world's first
two Coridia iLint models, manufactured by Alstom, have been
running in regularly scheduled
service on a line operated by
Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft

Niedersachsen (LNVG) and
Eisenbahnen und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser (EVB) in
Lower Saxony. Starting in 2021,
an additional 14 trains will be operated on that regional network.
In Hesse, 27 units are expected
for 2022.
USA: developing hydrogen
mobility in California
Current political investment has
encouraged the introduction of
three hydrogen-powered models
in the USA. Two Japanese ones
(the Toyota Mirai and the Honda
Clarity Fuel Cell) and a South
Korean vehicle (the Hyundai
NEXO that replaced the Tucson/
iX35 Fuel Cell). Meanwhile, the
main US car manufacturers are
focusing their efforts on electric technology but developments around hydrogen are in
the works. Hydrogen Council
member General Motors provided some insights on that matter. California currently has 40
hydrogen stations and wants to

jec composites magazine / SPECIAL ISSUE Mobility / May 2020

bring this number up to a thousand by 2030. As a member of the
California Fuel Cell Partnership,
Air Liquide is involved in this deployment operation: The Group
has already installed four stations
across the state. In early 2019, the
Group started work on building
the first large-scale liquid hydrogen production unit. With capacity to produce nearly 30 tonnes of
hydrogen per day, this unit will be
able to fuel 35,000 fuel cell electric vehicles - almost the number
of FCEVs expected to be running
on Western US roads by 2022.
The Group also signed a longterm contract with FirstElement
Fuel Inc. to supply hydrogen to
its network of Californian stations.
China: the giant
In only a few years, China has
accelerated the initiative. In the
spring of 2019, the government
amended its annual work report to include the construction
of charging stations for hydrogen-powered vehicles. The country currently only has fifteen or
so, but it will need to increase
this number quickly if it is to
power the millions of vehicles
that it wants to have running on
its roads by 2030. This is why
Air Liquide - which already has
a presence in China with nearly 90 industrial gas production
units - set up a joint-venture in
spring 2019 with Chinese group
Chengdu Huaqi Houpu Holding:
Air Liquide Houpu Hydrogen
Equipment. Its aim is to produce
and sell hydrogen stations across
the country in order to meet the
market demand.
Chinese automotive manufacturers will also have to pick up
the pace if they want to catch
up. Initially, priority will be given to utility vehicles and buses.
Starting in 2019, 30,000 buses

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Special Issue Composites for mobility - May 2020

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