The launch of the hydrogen station in Prague at Barrandov was delayed for so long that Ostrava overtook the capital. The first public pump started operating in Vítkovice, opposite the World of Technology exhibition. Its equipment is modest and instead of the usual five minutes, it fills one car in three quarters of an hour. However, such a pump is better than none, and in Czech conditions, the development of new technologies cannot do without similar shortcuts.
Small steps can sometimes be faster than big steps. This is illustrated by the almost endless story of Czech filling stations for hydrogen cars. The Benzina company announced its intention to build a station in Barrandov in Prague in the spring of 2017, and wanted to put it into operation at the end of the same year. So far it has not succeeded.
Before the contract with the supplier was signed after lengthy processes, it was September 2020. That was when the covid pandemic hit hard, limiting the supply of some materials and components and at the same time causing chaos in maritime transport. This also affected the Barrand pump, whose equipment comes from the United States. It is already installed today, after all the tests and revisions, it is expected to be launched in the coming weeks.
In Vítkovice, they chose a different path, less powerful equipment from domestic sources. The reservoir consists of kits made from pressure cylinders manufactured by local specialist Vítkovice Cylinders. The high-pressure equipment was supplied by the Czech company APT, continuing the long-standing tradition of Tesla Elstroj, while the control system was supplied by Vítkovice IT Solutions.
The second significant difference is in the investment requirement. While the equipment of large and fast pumps cost around twenty-five million crowns before covid, in Ostrava they managed more than ten million cheaper.
This is what – among other things – explains the slow refueling. The tanks of passenger cars are filled with a pressure of 700 bar, during which the hydrogen heats up significantly and expands, so it must be cooled. Even before refueling begins, it is subcooled to -40 °C, and the cooling power itself is in the tens of kilowatts.
All of this has fallen away in Vítkovice, so compression must take place more slowly. This largely calls into question one of the arguments of hydrogen mobility, as a modern battery car can be charged just as quickly for a range of three hundred kilometers. The operators themselves see the main use for city vehicle fleets that will have time to refuel in the evening or overnight.
Hydrogen is a big topic for Ostrava, which suffers from bad air quality. By 2030, the city would like to have all public transport powered by hydrogen. Together with the Moravian-Silesian Region, the Technical University of Ostrava and twenty companies from the private sector, it founded the Hydrogen Cluster with the aim of creating a complex chain involving the production, distribution and processing of hydrogen. Green hydrogen will be produced, for example, by heating plants burning biomass.
The opening of the Vítkovice station is therefore rather the first step in building the local ecosystem. Nevertheless, fans of hydrogen cars will also be pleased. The nearest open pumps are in Vienna and Dresden, which are respectively three hundred and five hundred kilometers from Ostrava. Prague and Litvínov should open this year, as well as Katowice in Poland. There are still plans in Brno without a specific date.
–
