Air Liquide opens a new hydrogen station in Ile-de-France to fuel France’s first hydrogen-powered bus line

Air Liquide today inaugurates a new hydrogen station in Les Loges-en-Josas, near Versailles. Designed and installed by Air Liquide with the support of the FCH JU and the European program 3EMotion, this station will fuel the two hydrogen-powered buses, scheduled for rollout in 2019, running between Vélizy and Versailles. Air Liquide is thus supporting the Île-de-France region, Île-de-France Mobilités and the greater Versailles Grand Parc community in their transition to clean and virtuous mobility for the region and is contributing to the deployment of hydrogen energy in public transport in France.

This is the third station that has been installed by Air Liquide in the Greater Paris Area and follows those commissioned near the Pont de l’Alma in Paris and the Paris-Orly Airport. Air Liquide also continues to support the growth of the Paris hydrogen taxi fleet “Hype” with this new hydrogen station by making it available to the fleet’s vehicles as well. This fleet, deployed in late 2015 by the start-up STEP (Société du Taxi Électrique Parisien) in partnership with Air Liquide, already counts 75 hydrogen-powered vehicles and plans to deploy a total of 200 by the end of 2018. The station in Les Loges-en-Josas is the third Air Liquide station to fuel hydrogen-powered buses, after the one installed and operated by the Group near Oslo, Norway, which already fuels a fleet of 5 hydrogen-powered buses and the one located near Rotterdam. Eventually, heavy duty-trucks and other utility vehicles could also make use of hydrogen stations.

Hydrogen offers a number of benefits for clean transportation. Used in a fuel cell, it combines with oxygen from the air to produce electricity, with water as the only byproduct. Hydrogen does not generate any pollution at the point of use: zero greenhouse gas, zero particle and zero noise. The electric buses and vehicles powered by hydrogen can be recharged in less than twenty and less than five minutes respectively, for a respective driving range of around 350 kilometers and 500 kilometers. This energy brings a concrete response to the challenges of clean mobility in urban areas and helps to improve air quality.

Air Liquide has been committed to the development of hydrogen energy for more than 20 years, with a particular focus on mobility. The Group is involved all along the hydrogen value chain, from the production and storage of hydrogen to its distribution to end users. Air Liquide has already installed 100 hydrogen stations in the world, including 6 in France.

The FCH JU (Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking) is a public private partnership supporting research, development and demonstration activities in energy technologies, fuel cells and hydrogen in Europe. This infrastructure is part of the H2ME project that has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 700350 and 633174. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 and FP7 research and innovation programme, from Hydrogen Europe and from Hydrogen Europe Research.

3EMotion, which is jointly financed by the FCH JU, brings together 14 European partners for the purpose of developing projects involving buses and related infrastructure in Europe.