On January 30, 2014 I had talked about Air Products introducing its SmartFuel® hydrogen high pressure tube trailers. Now, across The Pond, I would like to talk about another company, Chesterfield Special Cylinders (CSC) introducing their hydrogen high pressure tube trailer.
The Chesterfield tube trailers will be used to refuel hydrogen fueling stations in London. They will also act as mobile refueling stations as well.
According to CSC, “Sheffield-based high pressure gas containment systems manufacturer, Chesterfield Special Cylinders (CSC), has delivered the first two high pressure tube trailers operating in Europe, which will transport hydrogen at high pressure to fuelling stations in London for the capital’s hydrogen buses.
“The trailers can transport large volumes of hydrogen from central production facilities to fuelling stations at a pressure of 500 bar, a significant enhancement to the existing 200 bar industrial hydrogen delivery models.
“The trailers will be a key component in the bus refueling project in London, where they can operate as a mobile fuelling station.”
Both Air Products and Chesterfield Special Cylinders are attempting to solve some of the problems involved with transporting compressed hydrogen gas over long distances. The tube trailers are a good step forward in this endeavor.
Hydrogen distribution is a debated subject. A trailer can only carry a limited amount of hydrogen compared to the demand when many cars will tank 1-5 kg of hydrogen at a time. In an ideal World, with abundant wind and solar electricity cheap hydrogen could be produced locally by electrolysis at times of overproduction. But hydrogen will also have to be transported by trailers. So, good that this is further developed.
“Both Air Products and Chesterfield Special Cylinders are attempting to solve some of the problems involved with transporting compressed hydrogen gas over long distances”
Don’t forget about Linde:
“Munich, 25 September 2013 – Technology company The Linde Group has developed a new storage technology that will enable a much more efficient transport of larger amounts of hydrogen. The new solution works at a higher pressure of 500 bar (7,250 psi) and uses new, lighter storage materials to more than double the amount of compressed gaseous hydrogen (CGH2) that can be transported in a single truck load……
Each trailer features 100 lightweight composite storage elements developed in collaboration with xperion Energy & Environment GmbH. A single trailer can transport over 1,100 kilograms, or 13,000 normal cubic metres, of hydrogen gas. In addition, the trailers can now be filled and emptied in less than 60 minutes.”