Netherlands : Air Liquide opens a hydrogen filling station for the general public in Rotterdam

On September 3, 2014, Air Liquide inaugurated its first hydrogen filling station in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in the presence of the Secretary of State of the Dutch Ministry of Transport and the Environment.

This station will be the first Air Liquide hydrogen filling station located in the Netherlands. It has the capacity to refuel fifty cars per day. One hydrogen full tank, which takes under five minutes to achieve, will give Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles a range of 500 – 600 km.

This filling station is part of HIT*, a European hydrogen infrastructure deployment project run by Air Liquide and six other European partners. It received financial backing from the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), a European Commission program which aim is to support the development of transport infrastructures.

The Air Liquide Group is actively involved in setting up the hydrogen energy industry at global level: it has already designed and supplied over 60 hydrogen filling stations around the world. The first one intended for the general public opened in 2012 in Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2014, the Group also announced the installation of four new hydrogen filling stations in Denmark – the first national hydrogen infrastructure network in Europe.

Hydrogen helps to preserve the environment by providing solutions for the challenges of sustainable mobility: reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as local pollution in urban areas. The creation of a distribution infrastructure is one of the key challenges for the commercial development of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles.