A quarter of Germany's hydrogen filling stations out of action as supply problem enters eighth week

A hydrogen fuel supply problem in Germany is continuing into its eighth week following an H2 truck trailer explosion back in August, with at least 23 of the country’s 83 filling stations out of action yesterday evening.

A truck trailer carrying hydrogen cylinders exploded on 26 August at industrial gases giant Linde’s facility at the Leuna Chemical Park in eastern Germany due to a suspected, unexplained H2 leak.

Although no-one was hurt in the deflagration, all trailers of the same type have been taken out of circulation until the cause of the leak has been unidentified and a potential remedy deployed — which means that there is currently no way of getting hydrogen to many filling stations across Germany.

As of yesterday evening, according to the H2.live website, there were 12 filling stations that had run out of fuel due to the supply problem, with another two listed as running out of fuel without attributing blame, while a further three were listed as out of service and unable to resupply due to the Leuna issue.

On top of this, a further 19 filling stations were listed as having enough hydrogen to fill vehicles, but unable to get any more — five of which were running low on fuel yesterday evening, this means that the number of refuelling stops out of action is set to grow unless the H2 trailers are back on the road soon.

In addition, one Shell refuelling station in the central German town of Braunschweig had run out of 350-bar hydrogen (the pressure largely used by heavy-duty vehicles) due to the problem, but had not quite run out of 700-bar H2 used by cars.

In other words, 37 hydrogen filling stations are affected by the supply problem. A further six are out of action for other reasons.

The situation is particularly bad in Berlin, where all five of its H2 stations were out of action yesterday evening due to the supply problem, as well as the only two other hydrogen filling pumps within 100km. Drivers in Berlin would have to drive more than 150km to the nearest working H2 station, in Magdeburg, to refuel their vehicles.

“Due to an accident at the hydrogen filling station in Leuna, we are currently unable to provide hydrogen at the station,” says a message attached to all the affected stations on H2.live’s up-to-date map showing the location and status of each of the stops.

“Replacement deliveries are currently not possible due to the resulting shortage in the market and the long distances to other hydrogen sources. We have a force majeure situation. We are making every effort to find solutions at individual stations. We apologise for the situation.”

The same issue has also affected Linde’s supply to German rail operator EVB’s H2 trains.

There is no indication as to how long the problem will continue. Hydrogen Insight has approached Linde for comment.

Germany has by far the largest number of hydrogen filling stations in Europe, with the Netherlands and Switzerland in joint second place, with 17.