Building a Refuelling Station Is Not Enough

A station built at a fraction of the cost of subsidised projects, cascade refuelling without a chiller, and a new station in the Zlín Region. Jan Světlík and Vladimír Dynda discuss what the Ostrava pilot station has delivered after four years, where hydrogen mobility is encountering obstacles, and why refuelling stations alone are not enough.

In 2022, you built a hydrogen refuelling station in Ostrava, which has been presented as an important starting point for hydrogen mobility in the Czech Republic. What has it demonstrated after four years?

Vladimír Dynda: The station fulfilled its purpose by demonstrating that it is possible to build a relatively simple facility without state support – quickly and without unnecessary additional costs. As a pilot project, the station also provided valuable practical experience for the designers, contractors and operators involved, and clearly helped build expertise in the field.

Jan Světlík: The station has absolutely fulfilled its purpose, because it gave us experience of how hydrogen can be dispensed using an innovative approach. We invested in the station and developed the solution together with APT. We did not want to spend a huge amount of money, and it really did cost just a fraction of what subsidised stations cost. At the same time, we developed a new, revolutionary cascade refuelling method that eliminates the need for the chiller normally used in such systems, which significantly increases the overall cost of a station. As a result, we now have a proven technology, and it has moved us forward tremendously.

How is hydrogen mobility developing from your perspective?

Jan Světlík: For me, the development of hydrogen mobility has been an absolute disappointment, because solutions that work are simply not being used. When it comes to stations built through subsidy programmes, contracting authorities demand the most expensive technologies, which ultimately undermines the entire development of hydrogen mobility. For example, the City of Ostrava awarded a contract for a refuelling station worth CZK 200 million, even though it should cost around CZK 50 million. It all comes down to the investor setting the right requirements.

It is often said that without refuelling stations there will be no hydrogen vehicles, while without vehicles there is no economic case for building stations. Who, in your view, needs to take the first financially risky step?

Vladimír Dynda: I am convinced that the first step must be to establish suitable hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. The responsibility for taking that step – or rather for creating the conditions that make it possible – lies with those responsible for national policy on environmental protection and the related priorities, such as increasing the share of domestically produced energy, by which we mean renewable energy. In practice, these are the Ministries of Transport, Industry and Trade, and the Environment. Thanks to their efforts, a number of pilot projects have already been implemented. A systematic approach in this direction will ultimately lead to broader interest. After all, two of the four public hydrogen refuelling stations were established through private initiatives without state support, while the other two were built with public support. I would also add that there are another two stations in the Czech Republic located at organisations such as public research institutions (v.v.i.).

In our interview in 2023, you said that in the Czech Republic there was a great deal of talk about hydrogen, but few actual projects and companies making a living from it. What has changed at Cylinders Holding since then? How many hydrogen solutions have you delivered, and to which countries?

Jan Světlík: Our hydrogen projects are growing worldwide. We supply half the world – across Europe and the Americas, while Australia is a major market for us, and we also supply a great deal to South Korea. In the Czech Republic, we are probably the only company exporting hydrogen technologies at a significant annual volume of around EUR 10 million. We supply a wide range of solutions. For example, we have mastered standard hydrogen storage solutions for pressures of 100, 200, 300, 420, 555, 1,000 and 1,100 bar.

You also talk about a model that makes use not only of the hydrogen itself, but also of the oxygen and heat generated in the process. How exactly would such a system work, and for what type of industrial company could it make economic sense?

Jan Světlík: When hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, other products are generated as well: oxygen and a large amount of heat. At the same time, you gain grid flexibility. If you produce several products but sell only one of them, you are going to have an economic problem. We need to change the way we think and make use of all these readily marketable commodities. Then we can supply hydrogen as well as the other products at a very attractive price.

Production makes sense when electricity prices are negative, when you are effectively paid to consume electricity. Conversely, I am not going to produce hydrogen when electricity prices are at their highest.

In your view, could a stable supply of electricity from nuclear power or future small modular reactors provide a more economical basis for low-emission hydrogen production than renewables alone?

Jan Světlík: Combining a small nuclear reactor with electrolysers creates tremendous potential for the efficient production of electricity, hydrogen, oxygen and heat. A nuclear reactor also provides superheated steam, which is beneficial for certain hydrogen technologies. Hydrogen is an excellent way of storing electricity at times when there is no demand. I see the future of energy in nuclear power, with hydrogen production as an integral part of it.

Cylinders Holding offers SMART containers and smart solutions for transporting hydrogen, with logistics that can be managed from a central control centre or a mobile device. What exactly makes this solution ‘smart’, how does it differ from a conventional transport container, and where is it already being used in practice?

Jan Světlík: A SMART container has its own internal control system, can be operated remotely, and has an autonomous system and onboard computer centre. If we send out a container carrying 5,500 m³ of gas and the customer wants 1,000 m³, we can programme the container remotely to release exactly 1,000 m³ and no more, without anyone having to be physically present to take measurements.

Its use is still very limited at the moment, but I see it as the container of the future – its time is yet to come.

Mr Světlík, you have long criticised the over-regulation of European industry. Mr Dynda, you have helped develop rules for hydrogen safety. Where is the line between essential safety requirements and regulation that only makes projects more expensive or prevents them from going ahead?

Jan Světlík: The European Commission has killed off hydrogen mobility with overly strict requirements. For example, by requiring green hydrogen from sources that have not even been built yet, it has discouraged more than 90% of investors. First, we need to get hydrogen technologies up and running, and only then can we discuss what degree of ‘greenness’ we should use to assess them.

I often compare European Commission regulation to regulating an unborn child and dictating which primary and secondary school they must attend. During the initial stage of deployment, there is no need to insist strictly on green hydrogen.

Vladimír Dynda: I am not entirely sure that I see a particular line that would produce the effect you are asking about. It is positive that we work with harmonised technical standards and legislation. Some of these are also shared with the United States. What I mean is that a huge number of professionals work according to these rules, and if there were any negative administrative effects within them, someone would certainly raise the issue. That applies to safety.

The situation is different when it comes to regulating production and consumption, where ‘hydrogen racism’ – by which I mean categorising hydrogen according to colour and how it is produced – can delay the deployment of hydrogen technologies. I am convinced that we are currently at a stage in the development of hydrogen applications where the results of those applications are more important than insisting on hydrogen from renewable sources. Renewable hydrogen is also in short supply and available at prices that completely undermine existing economic calculations. As a result, new hydrogen technologies are more likely to remain isolated applications rather than being deployed on a large scale. But that is not what we should be aiming for at this stage.

The Czech Government’s resolution updating the development of hydrogen technologies sets out clear targets, including, for example, the number of hydrogen vehicles and refuelling stations, as well as total hydrogen consumption of 20,000 tonnes per year by 2030. What we need, therefore, is greater support for the deployment of these technologies, rather than holding them back by restricting which ‘colours’ of hydrogen – in other words, which sources of hydrogen – are considered acceptable.

APT is preparing another hydrogen refuelling station, including one in the Zlín Region. What can you publicly confirm about it at this stage?

Vladimír Dynda: It is a public hydrogen refuelling station offering both 350 and 700 bar refuelling pressures and operating as a stand-alone system, with hydrogen produced by an electrolyser directly on site. The investor is Solar Global Service, a.s. The group operates in the energy sector and has access to sufficient renewable electricity. The station will therefore be the first to supply exclusively renewable – or, if you prefer, green – hydrogen.

The plan is to use this new hydrogen refuelling station and its renewable hydrogen to refuel ten regional public transport buses in the Zlín Region. We have also expanded the technology to allow pressure cylinders to be filled with this green hydrogen at 5.0 purity for use by other customers interested in renewable hydrogen.

Commissioning is scheduled for late October or early November. All equipment has now been delivered to the site and final installation is under way. In October, the necessary procedures will be carried out to verify the station’s safety and operational readiness before it is put into service.

What is currently missing for the Moravian-Silesian Region to move beyond individual hydrogen projects and create an integrated value chain spanning production, storage and distribution through to stable end users?

Vladimír Dynda: What is needed is goodwill in coordinating the region’s overall strategy, without individual interests getting in the way and with the support of all available resources. The experience gained in this way could also lead to the creation of new organisational structures with specific roles, for example in hydrogen distribution or specialised services focused on quality control and safety. There definitely needs to be a connection between hydrogen producers, refuelling station operators and transport fleet operators.

Jan Světlík: Hydrogen projects are growing worldwide, and I hope that the Moravian-Silesian Region will develop a strong hydrogen strategy and successfully put it into practice. If public hydrogen transport is introduced, the approach should be to start with local projects and gradually connect and expand them. However, the situation in the Czech Republic is further complicated by the lack of a suitable source of clean hydrogen.

Your song ‘Což takhle dát si vodík’ is also well known within the hydrogen community. Does the Czech hydrogen sector need more optimism today?

Vladimír Dynda: People really do seem to like the song, and it has inspired me to write some new lyrics. Hopefully, we will soon have an opportunity to share it publicly. Everything is easier with a smile – and perhaps even easier with a nice melody. Hydrogen needs attention. It represents one of the possible pathways towards decarbonisation and is part of the efforts being made by a modern society. I would like hydrogen to be a source of optimism for us, rather than something that consumes it!