Good practice:

Hydrogen Refuelling Stations

Aberdeen has two publicly available hydrogen refuelling stations: Kittybrewster and Aberdeen City Hydrogen Energy Centre (ACHES). Both refuelling stations produce hydrogen via water electrolysis using an alkaline electrolyser.
Kittybrewster station was built by BOC and opened in 2015 when the Aberdeen Hydrogen Bus project (deployment of 10 hydrogen buses) commenced. It is operated and maintained by BOC and is one of the largest and most reliable dedicated hydrogen bus refuelling stations in the UK. It can dispense up to 360kg hydrogen per day and has the capacity to store 420kg on site. In 2018 the station was upgraded to allow the refuelling of cars and vans at 700 bar, in addition to buses.
The ACHES refuelling station was built by Hydrogenics and opened in 2017. It is owned by Aberdeen City Council. The station can produce 130kg of hydrogen per day. ACHES has the capacity to store an additional 150kg of hydrogen on site. The station can dispense hydrogen at both 700 and 350 bar, and can therefore refuel buses, trucks, vans and cars.
The main stakeholders of the stations include the station builders – BOC and Cummins and Aberdeen City Council’s Roads and Planning departments who were instrumental to granting permission for the stations’ development. With ACHES, Norco is a key stakeholder as they are responsible for the daily operation of the station.
The main beneficiaries of both stations are the hydrogen bus operators and other hydrogen truck, van and vehicle users.

With the Kittybrewster station, BOC was a partner in the consortium for the Aberdeen Hydrogen Bus Project. The project was funded by HyTransit, Scottish Government and Aberdeen City Council. A tender was issued for the development of ACHES. It was funded by Aberdeen City Council.

Aberdeen has pursued a hydrogen economy by partnering with BOC and commissioning the second station. Both stations are operational and have had more than 90% availability since development. 2 stations also means that when one is closed for planned or unplanned maintenance the other is available resulting in a reliable supply of hydrogen. Since 2014, at least 85 hydrogen vehicles have refuelled at both stations and there has been 1 private sector purchase of a hydrogen van with no help from ACC.

The ACHES station builder is located outside the UK and the operator is in the UK. This has resulted in some delays because of international travel when the station requires maintenance or has any problems. Small scale production of hydrogen is also fairly expensive.

Both stations show different models that can be adopted for a hydrogen station. It is possible to tender for a ‘BOOM (builder, owner, operator, maintainer)’ model or for a company that only specialises in building and maintenance of a station.
A suitable accessible location for the station is important – one that is distant from residential properties but within proximity to large bus/fleet vehicles (as likely early adopters). Early engagement with the city’s planning department to determine any additional consents that would be required before planning permission is encouraged. Community engagement with the local community where the refuelling station would be located is also important to get support from the area.
One can include local companies in the daily operations of a hydrogen station. At ACHES the daily operator (Norco) is a local company that specialises in electrical systems. This has resulted in training and an expansion of local skills and expertise in the city.