Work on the “Amagasaki Hydrogen Station” which had been going on at the Iwatani Central Research Laboratory in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture recently came to a finish. It will be used for commercial sale of hydrogen for use with fuel cell vehicles (FCV). A ceremony was held on July 14 to mark the opening of the station, with those involved in the station and members of the press in attendance. In anticipation of the start of FCV marketing next year, an infrastructure composed of 100 fuel stations is being arranged in 4 major municipal areas nationwide. This station, however, is the first one to be completed for commercial use.

In attendance at the opening ceremony were President Masao Nomura, Vice Chairman Toshio Watanabe, Senior Executive Director Masami Makise, and President Takashi Miyagawa of Iwatani Industrial Gases from the management team of the Iwatani Group. Also present were President Tetsushi Shigemori of New Cosmos Electric Company, President Masahiro Onodera of Yamato Sangyo. Other dignitaries present included Sanjiv Ramba, an executive board member of the Linde Holdings which supplied the compressor system, while those concerned with auto manufacturers such as Toyota Motor, Honda Motor, Nissan Motor, and Suzuki Motor, which were also involved in the project took part. Several people from governmental bodies connected with the project too were invited as guests and made congratulatory addresses.
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tarting off as the first speaker was President Nomura of Iwatani who stated proudly, “The rain which had been falling earlier this morning has stopped, turning into fine weather for celebrating the launching of the first hydrogen station in Japan for commercial use. This station adopts liquid hydrogen which excels in storage and in the ability to be transported, and is suitable for a location in an urban area. As the heart of the station we are adopting the new type of compressor put out by Linde for use at such stations, the “IC-90.” It is compact, and excels in energy efficiency. We at Iwatani plan to open 20 stations by next year. We are doing our best to create an infrastructure with safety and complete reliability as its slogan. We would like to contribute to the bringing about of the hydrogen society.” Nomura also revealed that Linde would open a plant in Vienna to mass produce small hydrogen filling systems for use with hydrogen filling stations and hold a ceremony there exactly at the same time and the same day as the ceremony for Amagasaki Hydrogen Station to mark the opening which Chairman Akiji Makino would attend and address. Sanjiv Ramba, the board member from Linde gave an address in which he stated, “Since early 2000 we have felt that the requirements of use with the future hydrogen stations for FCVs would not be fulfilled with the existing compressor and pump technology. We have therefore been involved in the development of completely new technology which is the ionic compressor. We have a cooperative relationship with Iwatani in the area of the engineering involving the hydrogen liquefaction facilities. We would like to support Iwatani as it takes on the challenge of creating the facilities for the Japanese hydrogen infrastructure.”

The Amagasaki hydrogen station is an off-site type which utilizes hydrogen from the liquid hydrogen storage tank in the adjacent Central Research Laboratory. It has one dispenser with an area of 550 m2, facing the main road, which is capable of filling to 70 MPa. It has a filling capacity of 340 Nm3 an hour, capable of filling 6 cars an hour. Hydrogen gas stored in a buffer tank laid out behind a protective wall is raised to a pressure of 82 MPa with a Linde compressor. It is stored in three 300 liter steel pressure accumulators. The cars are filled with the pressure difference. There is also a precool facility to enable a car to be topped off in 3 minutes.

The Linde IC-90 is a unique Linde compressor designed for hydrogen stations employing an ion liquid for the driving catalyst in place of a piston. In five stages it raises the hydrogen at a pressure of under 1MPa up to 90MPa. The entire filling system is designed so that it fits completely into a 20 foot container. Iwatani is considering adopting the IC-90 as its standard compressor for its commercial hydrogen stations, with the exception of the portable types.

As already reported in The Gas Review 790, it has been decided that for this year 24 hydrogen stations will receive government subsidies. Combined with those of last year this means that a total of 41 stations are now in the works. The Amagasaki station is the first of these to open, although full-scale operation will begin after the FCVs go on sale. For the time being Iwatani will be using this station for conducting various tests. Construction will be concentrated on the second and third stations to open.