Hydrogen Filling Station: International Cooperation with South Korea

Green hydrogen will help to decarbonise heavy and long-distance transport, and one day perhaps also air and sea transport. BAM (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung / Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing), whose mandate includes ensuring safety in technology and chemistry, is building a digitally networked research filling station for hydrogen at its test site in Brandenburg, which is unique in Germany to date, as part of QI-Digital. The platform will be used to comprehensively test central aspects of the operational monitoring and safety of hydrogen filling stations and to digitalise essential processes in order to increase the overall economic efficiency, reliability and availability of hydrogen filling stations.

In the future, four partner institutions from South Korea will also use the research filling station, which is scheduled to go into operation in spring 2024, as part of a cooperation. An agreement to this effect was signed last week at BAM in Berlin. The cooperation is funded by the South Korean Ministry of Economy and Energy.

The focus is on testing a safety management system for hydrogen safety developed in South Korea. The aim is to evaluate operational safety data collected via sensors online and to monitor the behaviour of all components in real time. In an emergency or in critical operating situations, the system also automatically issues instructions for action to ensure safety for users.

"By pooling our know-how at an early stage, we can contribute to the faster application of safety systems for hydrogen filling stations and thus accelerate the market ramp-up of green hydrogen," says Bin Wang, who is coordinating the cooperation at BAM.

Two South Korean companies are involved in the project, as well as the state-run Korea Electronics Technology Institute and the Korea Gas Safety Corporation, which is subordinate to the South Korean Ministry of Economics.