Lessons from early hydrogen refuelling stations
Hydrogen refuelling infrastructure has reached a critical learning stage, with early station deployments revealing insights into elements of station design, integration, and operation that could improve future developments.
Tom Phillips, Production Engineering Manager at diaphragm compression system maker PDC Machines, told H2 View that early stations were designed with high utilisation in mind, but lower than expected usage and system complexity led to various challenges.
“I think we, as an industry, tried to go very quickly into automobiles,” he said. “But I think the equipment manufacturers were not really suited for that.”
He explained that many of the components and sub-systems that make up refuelling stations are often repurposed from other industries. And while they can work for hydrogen refuelling, poor system integration and the sporadic nature of car refuelling led to stations going offline.
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