A combined effort between Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and Swinburne University of Technology’s Victorian Hydrogen Hub (VH2) has created the development of a new hydrogen refuelling station. The new site will be based in Australia, in Victoria and it has been built with the purpose of conducting research as well as refuelling vehicles.

The primary function of this new station is to show the benefits and drawbacks of using hydrogen on real vehicles, not just during tests in a lab. In order to do this, the companies have put a lot of effort into ensuring the station can refuel up to 10 cars, which was the statistic provided by CSIRO. This refuelling goal has been made possible through an investment of $2.5m, enabling 20kg of green hydrogen to be produced daily through electrolysis. The green hydrogen can then be stored in the space included in the structure of the site, which has the capacity to store a maximum of 80kg. This ensures that no hydrogen is wasted and it can be stored until a vehicle is ready to use it.

Along with refuelling vehicles, CSIRO’s Clayton Site, where the plant is based, has been designed to run tests on new hydrogen technology, then provide training and improvements to make the use of the hydrogen refuelling station easier. This portrays how the site has been developed with both refuelling and research in mind. This development highlights Australia joining the drive towards hydrogen usage within the mobility sector.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Swinburne University of Technology Prof. Karen Hapgood, commented, “The launch of the hydrogen station brings Australia another step closer to creating a carbon neutral world by 2050 or earlier. Hydrogen plays a key part in our transition to clean energy, and demonstration projects such as these help to test technical, regulatory and economic aspects of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, and support the urgent training and workforce development for this expanding hydrogen energy ecosystem.”

Chief Executive of CSIRO, Dr. Doug Hilton, mentioned, “The technology is an exciting piece in the puzzle in Australia’s renewable energy future and will deliver long-term community and environmental benefits, boost the economy and create new jobs and opportunities for Australia and Australians.”