28 september 2018

European funding for 8 new hydrogen refuelling stations in the Benelux

A consortium - consisting of WaterstofNet as coordinator and Colruyt Group, PitPoint, Shell and Rijkswaterstaat as partners - joins forces in the comprehensive hydrogen ‘H2Benelux’ project. Within H2Benelux 8 hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) and 80 hydrogen-fuelled fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) will be deployed in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg by 2020.

The main objective of H2Benelux is the roll out of a basic HRS Benelux network, through the design and the implementation of 8 hydrogen refuelling stations along the ‘TEN-T’ (Trans-European Transport Network) Corridors: 3 in Belgium, 4 in the Netherlands and 1 in Luxembourg. The HRS will be built on existing conventional refuelling station sites as well as on greenfield sites.

H2Benelux will test under real conditions the technical and economic performance of a network of 8 HRS under daily utilization. Each station will be accompanied by at least 10 FCEV that will be used by a focus group of end users. The project will also test the environmental performances of the use of hydrogen produced from conventional energy sources: trucked in or on-site produced from renewable sources.

According to Adwin Martens, director of WaterstofNet, the H2Benelux project is of key strategic importance for the region: “WaterstofNet has demonstrated through the realisation of hydrogen projects in South-Netherlands and Flanders that cross-border collaboration strengthens the global position of the region in terms of value chain development and early adopter deployment clusters. This project further strengthens this position by realising a network of connected hydrogen refuelling stations in the Benelux that allows local hydrogen user communities to expand to national and cross-border playgrounds.”

H2Benelux is co-financed by the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) - Transport Programme to a maximum of € 7,218,875 and runs until the end of 2020. The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) of the European Commission will be supervising the project's implementation throughout its whole life-cycle.

Read the full press release in English or Dutch.