Hydrogen Mobility:: behind the scenes of a multi-energy service station

In this short (two-minute) video, our hydrogen (H2) business developer Fanny Cacherat talks about TotalEnergies’ two decades of experience and EU market presence in H2 for mobility, directly from our hydrogen refueling station (HRS) in Breda (The Netherlands).

She also explains how an HRS installation, such as this one located in Breda at a TotalEnergies multi-energy station, works. From the delivery of H2 to the filling station to the distribution of this zero-tailpipe emission fuel to the vehicle via a dispenser.

In addition, the video shows one of the main customers of this H2 station on the heavy-duty vehicle side: the Municipality of Breda with its H2 garbage truck. An experienced driver of this H2 garbage truck for the Municipality, Jur van Leeuwen, demonstrates how hydrogen refueling works in practice and talks about what it is like to drive such a heavy-duty H2 fuel-cell powered vehicle.

The hydrogen station (H2) station in Breda was co-financed by Europe (Interreg Flanders-Netherlands) and is part of the Interreg project ‘Waterstofregio 2.0', which is coordinated by H2 knowledge and cooperation platform WaterstofNet.

The garbage truck of the Municipality of Breda was made possible with contributions from the European organisation Clean Hydrogen Partnership, and is part of the Revive project.

Transcript capsule hydrogène

Mobilité hydrogène : dans les coulisses d’une station multi-énergies

Station-service de Berkman
Bréda, Pays-Bas

Hydrogen mobility: behind the scenes of a multi-energy service station

Berkman Service Station
Breda, Netherlands

Fanny Cacherat
Hydrogen Business Development
TotalEnergies Hydrogen Mobility Solutions

We are in a multifuel station which offers electricity, conventional fuel but also hydrogen as you can see behind me.

TotalEnergies opened its first hydrogen station in 2002 in Berlin, Germany and as of today, within TotalEnergies’ network, we have around 30 hydrogen stations in Europe.

We are offering 350 bar for heavy duty vehicles and also 700 bar for also heavy duty and light duty vehicles like passenger cars, for example.

Hydrogen refueling stations are a little bit different than conventional fuel stations. For instance, we are actually compressing a gas as opposed to pumping a liquid. It means that we need to first bring the molecules on site. So we can either do that with a tube trailer or we can also produce the molecules directly on site, for example through an electrolyzer. We then compress this hydrogen into the desired pressure. We are storing this hydrogen at high pressure inside a station. Because we are limited to a certain temperature inside the vehicle, we also need to add a cooling block inside the installation to be able to deliver hydrogen into the vehicle.

Customers with heavy duty trucks, for example, are in the need of a long range or long autonomy and also, a short refueling time. And that’s exactly where and why hydrogen makes sense because we are able to fill these needs.

My experience with the H2 truck is that it’s a lot cleaner, what is good for the people working on it but also for the environment. You have less sound, almost no sound, which is not only good for the people working on the back but also for the people living in the city. And the refueling time is almost the same as diesel trucks.

Hydrogen will play a crucial role in the energy transition. Alongside other solutions like battery, hydrogen will help us support our customers decarbonizing their transport.

Hydrogen Mobility:: behind the scenes of a multi-energy service station

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