INSPIRATION
A major hurdle for building the hydrogen economy is the transportation and distribution of the fuel. Depending on the site of production and usage,different methods of distribution are under consideration. The regional distribution of hydrogen through new pipelines or retrofitting current natural gas pipelines is gaining traction. Trains and ships also transport hydrogen, in either liquid or gaseous form, across regions. Tube trailers and liquid tankers are viable solutions for distributing hydrogen through highways. The handling of the hydrogen storage containers is important because of the flammability and material-embrittling nature of hydrogen.Hydrogen refueling stations also enable hydrogen highways
and mitigate refueling challenges of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, especially in trucks and buses.
US-based startup Hydroco develops cross-industry solutions for hydrogen distribution. The startup provides gas transportation services to supply bulk hydrogen gas on-site for customers. By selling and renting tube trailers, it accelerates the establishment of the hydrogen economy. The startup is involved in providing need-specific solutions for the transportation and storage of compressed hydrogen gas. Hydroco also provides consultations for compressed gas systems and portable refueling stations for CNG.
New Zealand-based startup Hiringa Energy accelerates the hydrogen economy by developing a hydrogen refueling network across New Zealand. Focused primarily on the heavy vehicles market, Hiringa devises a three-phase plan for the construction of the refueling network. The final goal of this plan is to provide access to over 100 refueling stations by 2030 .The refueling network includes centralized generation units with distributed refueling, distributed generation, and third-party generation with offtake. The startup factors in distance from hydrogen supply sites and frequency of aggregation of fleets when choosing refueling sites.
