Infrastructure
Rolling out a national infrastructure of refuelling stations needs to be planned so that coverage enables unrestricted travel.
There is a ‘chicken and egg’ issue between the infrastructure and the roll out of hydrogen vehicles, which can be overcome by co-ordination and a modular design approach for vehicle refuelling technology.
Several factors need to be considered when positioning a refuelling station including population density, traffic density, the road network, the electricity network and the availability of hydrogen vehicles.
Distributed electrolyser-refuellers provide maximum roll out flexibility, because they piggy back on the existing water and electricity infrastructures to provide hydrogen at the points of need. Modular designs of refueller lend themselves readily to upgrades in the hydrogen generation rate as the fuel cell vehicle parc increases.
