How simplifying hydrogen refuelling station design reduces costs and unlocks efficiencies

Hydrogen refuelling stations are the future of sustainable energy – decarbonising everything from electricity generation to transport and heat generation.

But, if we want them to reach their full potential, they need to be optimised: simple to implement, efficient to operate, and easy to manage.

That isn’t always easy – hydrogen refuelling stations are complex systems; building and maintaining them requires owners to make a number of careful CapEx and OpEx decisions.

In this article, we’ll explore the pain points that often stop hydrogen refuelling stations from reaching their full potential – and how you can avoid them.

What are the main challenges with hydrogen refuelling stations?

Building and running a successful hydrogen refuelling station means balancing a huge number of engineering, operational, and purchasing factors. Factors that shape every stage of the station’s lifecycle.

• Design – Design engineers need to meet complex certification and functionality requirements, as well as considering time and space constraints. At the same time, they must stay up to speed with industry developments and growth demands.

• Operations - Operations may have to grapple with unreliable components that are difficult to service. This often, unsurprisingly, leads to unplanned and expensive station downtime when components fail.

• Supply chain and purchasing - Many operators face a fragmented supply chain that’s very difficult to manage, which can drive up the total cost of ownership for the station.

These challenges stem from one factor: the piping and instrumentation system structures of hydrogen refuelling stations make them inherently complex to build and maintain. Equally, hydrogen refuelling stations are made up of a large number of subsystems, including hydrogen storage, pilot gas panels, dispensers, and compressor sections.

But how can station owners start simplifying their systems?

Three ways to reduce hydrogen refuelling centre complexity

We’ve had extensive experience working with customers in the hydrogen industry – and, in the process, identified three approaches that can help make stations simpler and more efficient.

Reduce leak points, costs, and the number of components with electric actuation

A typical hydrogen refuelling station contains 15-20 valves in its piping and instrumentation system alone. And these valves are just one small part of a long list of components that include everything from regulators to process control solutions.

Most of a station’s applications are air or pneumatically operated – which means they also require their own substation, made up of an air compressor, air preparation equipment, and associated piping and tubing.

This safety system must be compliant with all safety-related requirements (such as ATEX), and also be able to operate reliably in both warm and cold environments.

One way to reduce system complexity is to switch from pneumatic to electric actuation solutions, which require fewer substations. This reduces the total number of components required – which means fewer potential leak points, greater component reliability, and a less complex system design.

Using an electric solution may also mean you can take advantage of BUS systems, reducing wiring complexity.

Nowadays, the right partner and solution can make it much easier to transition to using electrically operated components.

Integrate multiple components on one manifold

Reducing the number of components inside your station doesn’t just mean reducing the number of substations.

You can also simplify your station by embracing manifolds with modular functionality.

By integrating different functions like valves, regulators and filters on one manifold, you’ll be able to reduce the overall quantity of pipes and fittings.

This once again reduces the number of leak points, but it also makes these components faster to install and maintain. You may even be able to reduce the overall footprint of that section of the station.

This approach is becoming more and more popular with developers of CNG refuelling stations and in traditional hydraulic applications.

Choose flexible, easy-to-service solutions

You want to be completely confident that your system will run reliably over a long lifetime.

To achieve this, you need to consider three things:

• Have your component solutions been tested and used in simulations? Your vendor should be able to show you a proven record of testing and simulations that replicate real-world conditions inside a hydrogen refuelling station.

• Are your components easy to service without causing significant disruption to your process lines? Cartridge-type components make it easy to remove parts of the solution for servicing without removing the entire body from the piping, saving time and service costs. You’ll also reduce the chance of accidentally introducing leak issues when your component is reassembled.

• Can you monitor the performance of your solution and identify potential issues? The latest integrated solutions use sensors and transmitters to monitor pressure and temperature, giving you a full picture of your component’s performance and allowing you to build predictive maintenance schedules that catch issues before they develop into disruptive faults.

The future of hydrogen? Simple, efficient refuelling station design

As the demand for hydrogen-based energy solutions intensifies, supporting infrastructure like refuelling stations needs to evolve rapidly.

Simplifying system design with reliable, efficient, carefully-designed components will be crucial – and the best way to ensure that this powerful energy source scales efficiently and delivers on its full potential.

Want to start simplifying the design of your substation and unlocking new efficiencies? Get in touch with our team to see our full range of fluid and motion control solutions for hydrogen refuelling stations.