When the hydrogen buses of the municipal In-der-City-Bus GmbH (ICB) drive to refuel in the future, the drivers will no longer have to take the route to the Höchst industrial park: a dedicated hydrogen filling station was opened on the Am Römerhof company premises on Thursday. It is the largest for public buses in Hesse, said Jörg Arne Egeter from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, who brought a funding notice for 1.7 million euros. The gas station cost a total of four million euros. Since October 2022, in addition to 16 battery-operated buses, the ICB also has 23 electric buses whose fuel cells generate the necessary electricity with hydrogen. You are traveling on the M 36 metrobus line. Another ten hydrogen buses will be added to line 64 in mid-June, said ICB managing director Martin Hulecki. They were currently in trial operation. In a year, with another nine articulated buses using hydrogen technology, we will be among the pioneers in the use of the 18-meter-long vehicles in Germany. Together with the 16 battery-operated electric buses, 48 of the 228 ICB buses will be locally emission-free. At the beginning of the 1930s, the bus fleet will be completely converted to renewable energies. “We want to become climate neutral as a city,” said mobility department head Wolfgang Siefert (The Greens). Local transport is an important factor for this. Hydrogen technology is currently the only alternative for longer distances. “However, we notice that acquisition and operation remain expensive because the prices for hydrogen have also risen,” said Tom Reinhold, managing director of the municipal local transport company Traffiq. That’s why more attention is being paid to battery-electric buses.More on the topic According to its managing director, ICB has had a range guarantee of 350 kilometers for its hydrogen-powered vehicles, over their entire service life. Operational safety is also crucial for the gas station. That’s why there are two gas pumps called “dispensers” so that in the event of a defect, you can switch to the other one. A refueling process takes seven to eight minutes. According to managing director Lars Jacobsen, this is the first hydrogen filling station that the Danish Everfuel GmbH has built and supplies in Germany. They particularly want to enter the market for local public transport and heavy commercial vehicles. The hydrogen for the ICB continues to come from Infraserv in Höchst and is brought with trailers. The system can be expanded The filling station has a capacity of one ton of hydrogen, which is enough for two days of operation with a consumption of 450 kilograms per day, said ICB managing director Hulecki. A larger capacity does not make sense because of the necessary approval procedures. Thanks to the modular structure, the system can be expanded and, with some effort, later moved to the new company premises in Rödelheim near Nordwestkreuz. It is to be built on the site of a former garden center and tree nursery, while the current location at Römerhof is planned to be converted into a residential area. However, a moving date in 2026 cannot be met, said Hulecki. Additional space is needed in Rödelheim because, for insurance reasons, the electric buses are allowed to be parked in fire compartments of a maximum of 15 vehicles each and therefore more space is needed. However, the ABG Holding was able to obtain the required land, which is why they want to start the approval process soon. Given the foreseeable delay in the move, the CDU’s mobility policy spokesman, Frank Nagel, criticized the fact that the employees of the ICB workshop continue to work under the conditions of the 1950s would have to be maintained and the old infrastructure would have to be maintained at great expense. Realistically speaking, it will certainly take until 2027 or 2028 for the hydrogen filling station to reach its final destination.
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