On August 4, Iwatani opened “Iwatani H2 Station Yamaguchi Shunan” which is the first commercial H2 station of the Chugoku district in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. 　There have already been openings of commercial H2 station for fuel-cell vehicles (FCV) ahead of others in the major metropolitan areas of the capital region, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. The development of infrastructure at this time is the first one in an area other than the above-mentioned major four.

The station installed in the premises of the Shunan Regional Wholesale Market (Konan, Shunan City) is designed to enable filling of hydrogen for the FC forklift of which demonstration test is planned to start in September in the market. It is characteristic that the filling dispenser of 70MPa for FCV stands side by side with the dispenser of 35MPa for forklift.

The H2 supply capacity of 340Nm3/h makes it possible to fill six FCVs per hour. It is an off-site station of liquid hydrogen which is delivered by tank trucks to the 24 kl LH2 reservoir (capable to fill about 300 FCVs) from “Yamaguchi Liquid Hydrogen” in Shunan City.

The hydrogen which comes through the vaporizer is pressurized up to 82MPa by Linde compressor (IC-90), accumulated by Samtech’s Type 3 accumulator (300liter x 3) and filled using the differential pressure. Two dispensers of 70MPa and 35MPa are made by Tatsuno Corporation. In addition, Iwatani plans to provide a hydrogen pipeline from the station to the fuel cell of pure-hydrogen type which is installed in the market, so that the hydrogen infrastructure can be utilized for multiple purposes like forklifts or hydrogen supply system for co-generation.

Iwatani has been announcing its plan to construct an H2 station at 20 locations, and has established this station of the 6th location following the stations in Amagasaki, Kita-kyushu, Tokyo Port Area, Toda City and Toyoda City. On August 4, an opening ceremony was held at the site, and there was also a departing ceremony of Toyota CV MIRAI for official use of Yamaguchi Prefecture. Two blue MIRAIs started to run from the station.

(Photo FC Folklift for demonstration)