“On April 19, an H2 filling station combined with a gasoline filling stand named “Ebina Chuo H2 Station” was opened, taking a step forward to commercial use for the first time in Japan at Ebina City of Kanagawa Prefecture by NEDO (the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), HySUT (the Research Association of Hydrogen Supply & Utilization Technology) and JX Energy.


The complex station was newly established as part of the “Technological and Social Demonstration Project” of the Japan Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Demonstration Project Phase 3 (JHFC3) by NEDO, HySUT and JX Energy, in accordance with the Safety Regulation for General High-Pressure Gas which was revised in November 2012 to enable construction of a station for a pressure up to 82MPa and the deregulation of the Fire Service Act in May 2012 to enable a joint installation with gas filling facilities.

Technically in use of the hydrogen supplying equipment of the newly developed packaging type, the complex station attained a joint installation with a self-filling gas stand, so that it will be able to cope with future demonstrations assumed for commercial use.

In the gasoline filling stand which JX Energy has in Ebina City located in the central part of Kanagawa Prefecture, a gasoline meter and a hydrogen dispenser are apposed in the station with attendance by three safety officers.

Compressed hydrogen is supplied by the off-site method in which industrial gas manufacturers transport hydrogen by trailers via the H2 delivery demonstration facility which was constructed by JX Energy inside the central technical laboratory in March 2013. In future, by-product hydrogen will be supplied from the JX Energy’s refinery depending upon the situation of operation. With the hydrogen filling capacity of 300Nm3/h, the station fills 50Nm3 hydrogen per car of fuel cell vehicle (FCV) for 5 to 6 cars per hour. They apply a filling pressure of 70MPa and a filling time of about three minutes per FCV based on the international standard.

Furthermore, aiming for more down-sizing and cost reduction, the station is characteristic in packaging of the equipment and piping skid as a unit inside the container. In addition, a combined way of filling is characteristic of the differential-pressure filling with the high pressure accumulator connected to FCV’s H2 tank and the direct filling of compressed hydrogen into FCV’s H2 tank by compressor. The operation is scheduled to end in March 2016.”