Hynion's hydrogen refueling station in Porsgrunn was acquired in 2019 and has not been in use since. This is due to stricter requirements, the need for technical review and low demand in the region. But in line with the rollout of more hydrogen vehicles due to stricter environmental requirements, the demand has increased. Hynion now has completed a major overhaul and update of the station, and the station has undergone third-party certification and been approved. Now all that remains is for Direktoratet for samfunnssikkerhet og beredskap (DSB) to finalize the certification.
The hydrogen refueling station in Porsgrunn was built by Norsk Hydro and was completed in 2007. It became part of the "Hydrogen Highway" which was inaugurated in 2009 and consisted of four hydrogen refueling stations on the E18 from Oslo to Stavanger. The station is a flagship with its underground hydrogen tanks and a dispenser for 700 bar for both passenger cars and heavy vehicles. When the station now reopens, this will be the fifth in Hynion's operation, which cements the company as the largest player in the Nordic market.
The lengthy process of reopening the station is, among other things, because the documentation from the manufacturing of Norsk Hydro was no longer available and had to be largely recreated from subcontractors. This was a comprehensive and time-consuming task. Additionally, the recertification of the pressure tanks required pressure testing with 15,000 cycles, which also consumed a significant amount of time.
"We are very happy that we are about to open our station in Porsgrunn for public fueling again. It has been a lot of work to go through all the station technology and get it ready for inspection and approval. The fact that the CEO of Power to Telemark has already bought a new hydrogen car shows a great faith in hydrogen as a fuel," says Slavica Djuric, CEO of Hynion.
"We at Power to Telemark are very happy that the station is now so close to being put into use, hydrogen is the major energy carrier for the future, now that we are phasing out fossil fuels," says Arne Nikander, CEO of Power to Telemark.
"I am very satisfied that all the technical equipment in the station is in such good condition, even though the station was built more than 15 years ago. It will work well for many years to come," says Pål Midtbøen, CTO of Hynion and one of the engineers behind the construction of the station.