Combined hybrid solution of metal hydride and mechanical compressors for particularly large hydrogen filling stations

Client: FCH JU
Region: Europe
Project Completion: December 2021

In this project, a consortium consisting of EIFER, LBST, MAHYTEC, Nel Hydrogen and Steinbeis 2i is working on the development of an innovative compressor solution for large hydrogen filling stations.

Hydrogen mobility is one of the most promising solutions for a sustainable energy transition. Due to the long range of fuel cell vehicles (ranges between 500 and 800 km), hydrogen mobility is of great interest for large-scale mobility applications, such as heavy-duty vehicles (trucks) or large fleets of smaller vehicles with high usage rates, such as taxi fleets.

The COSMHYC XL project builds on the existing knowledge that has already been generated in the sister project COSMHYC and transfers it to applications with heavy-duty vehicles to improve the results. As a result, COSMHYC XL will help to reduce hydrogen production costs and make it a competitive fuel for mobile applications in this segment.

To this end, the project is developing innovative compressor solutions for large hydrogen refueling facilities. These consist of a combination of metal hydride compressors with a high degree of reliability and new mechanical compressors that allow a high flow rate.

The integration of both compressors optimizes the thermal synergies, which increases the electrical efficiency by more than 30%. In addition, the new compressor solutions will contain less critical raw materials (e.g. rare earths, precious metals).

Further information can be found on the Project-Website.