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11.09.2006 - Hydrogen Highway in Norway

Hofer equips hydrogen filling stations with dry-running piston compressors

With HyNor, the Norwegian Ministry for Transport and Communication is starting a high-profile project for the use of hydrogen as an alternative energy source. By the year 2008, Norway's first Hydrogen Highway will be created between Stavanger and Oslo. Along this connecting route, hydrogen filling stations are being installed that should enable companies active in the transport sector to switch from petrol or diesel to using hydrogen as fuel. The hydrogen, supplied in gaseous form and intended for fuelling cars and lorries, will be compressed to a certain pressure at the filling stations using compressors and held in an intermediate storage tank, ready for filling via fuel pumps.

Hydraulically driven non-lubricated Piston Compressor

Andreas Hofer Hochdrucktechnik supplies the necessary piston compressors that will meet the special requirements for the operation of the filling stations. The machines operate in a compression room without lubrication, and thus ensure a hydrogen supply that is free from contamination. With the classic dry-running piston compressors however, driven by a crank shaft, only pressures of up to 180 bar can be generated. With the newly-designed, hydraulically driven piston compressors - the drive units are hermetically separated from the gas space - pressures of up to 1,000 bar may now be generated for supplying technical gases.

Hofer supplies the entire facility operationally ready, including all necessary fittings, in compact containers that may be conveniently installed onsite and to which the fuel pumps may be connected very simply. "We're very happy that Norsk Hydro have chosen to rely on Hofer's know-how and compressors for this innovative project. The use of hydrogen as an energy source is definitely one of the topics of the future. That we could help shape the future in this project motivates us a great deal," explains Dipl.-Wirtschaftsingenieur Andreas Köttnitz, executive director of Andreas Hofer Hochdrucktechnik.

Andreas Hofer Hochdrucktechnik is one of the market leaders in operationally ready facilities for the leakage-free compression of hydrogen. The core components for the equipment of hydrogen filling stations have thus already been supplied to Germany, Spain, Iceland and Japan.

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