A new development: the hydrogen fuelling station

Linde is responsible for the complete engineering, production and assembly of all components of the Zemship hydrogen filling station. The ship refuelling facility is located on the waterfront at the underground train depot of the HOCHBAHN.

The liquefied hydrogen (LH2) is delivered by road tankers and filled into a super insulted storage tank at minus 253°C (minus 423° F). During the fuelling process, a vaporizer converts the hydrogen from liquid to gaseous, then it is compressed to 25 bar (360 psi) by a rotary screw compressor.
The second compression stage with a pressure of up to 450 bar (6,500 psi) uses a completely new compression system, the so called ionic compressor. Instead of a conventional mechanical piston an ionic liquid is used for the pressurizing process. Major advantages of this compressor design are excellent and highly energy-efficent delivery rates, no contamination of the hydrogen gas (very important for fuel-cell applications), less moving parts and a reduced noise level below 65 db(A).

The ship can be refuelled with 50 kg compressed hydrogen (CGH2) in about 12 minutes.