Japan: Air Liquide will open the first public hydrogen station in Kobe

Air Liquide Japan announces that it will open “Kobe Shichinomiya Hydrogen Station” in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture. It will be open in March 2017, after completing construction in February.

Subsidized by METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan) and Kobe City, the station will be built adjacent to an existing petrol station in Hyogo ward, to contribute to local development of hydrogen mobility in Kobe area, the capital city of Hyogo prefecture.

The station’s footprint will be the smallest ever built by Air Liquide in Japan, as a model solution for major cities which tend to have geographical constraints.

The station employs the “compressed hydrogen off-site” system, bringing high pressure hydrogen gas from sources in Kansai area, and adjusting the pressure of the material gas to charge hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Air Liquide masters the entire hydrogen supply chain, from production to storage and from distribution to the development of applications for end users. The Group is actively participating in promoting the widespread use of hydrogen as a clean energy, especially for the transportation sector. At the end of 2015,  75 hydrogen charging stations have already been designed and installed by Air Liquide worldwide. In Japan, it co-runs two public-use hydrogen charging stations in Aichi Prefecture through the joint venture with Toyota Tsusho Corporation, and runs one in Saga, which was just opened earlier this year.