In Lower Saxony’s Bremervoerde, the world’s first hydrogen filling station for passenger trains will be built starting in September.

Representatives of the state and the companies involved met on site for a symbolic ceremony. An eighteen-month test phase for the first two trains was successfully completed at the end of February. The mobility project, which has attracted worldwide attention, is now entering its next phase.

The gases and engineering company Linde will build and operate the hydrogen filling station near Bremervoerde station on behalf of the Lower Saxony Regional Transport Company (LNVG). Other project partners are the rail vehicle manufacturer Alstom, the state of Lower Saxony and the Elbe-Weser Railways and Transport Company (EVB).

After completion expected in mid-2021, the hydrogen filling station will replace the existing mobile filling solution. With a capacity of around 1,600 kg of hydrogen per day, it is nominally one of the largest hydrogen filling stations in the world. From the beginning of 2022, 14 hydrogen-powered regional trains supplied by Alstom will be refuelled there daily and around the clock if necessary. Thanks to a range of 1,000 kilometers, the multiple-unit trains will be able to run emission-free all day long on the EVB network with just one tank filling. Expansion areas at the filling station will allow hydrogen to be produced on site later using electrolysis and regenerative electricity.

The project is subsidized by the national innovation programme for hydrogen and fuel cell technology of the Federal Ministry of Transport, and Digital Infrastructure NOW GmbH will coordinate the funding guideline and Project Management Jülich (PtJ) is responsible for the implementation.