- Serveo has been awarded the contract for the construction of a hydrogen generator at the Entrevías Operations Center of the Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid, EMT.
- Hiperbaric’s hydrogen compressor group reaches up to 500 bar pressure and supplies compressed hydrogen to the fleet of city buses.
- The hydrogen buses have a range of 280 kilometers, which is equivalent to 20 hours of on-road operation.
The city of Madrid has commissioned its first hydrogen generator at the EMT Madrid Operations Center in Entrevías. The first ten buses powered by green hydrogen will begin service in the municipal fleet during the month of November. During the inauguration of the facilities, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, highlighted the launch of this “unique in Europe” project, since “there is no other European capital that has a public hydrogen refueling station”.
The company Serveo, specialized in innovative energy solutions, has been in charge of the design, construction and commissioning of this hydrogen plant. Hiperbaric has been the supplier of the hydrogen compressor unit, which supplies hydrogen at a pressure of up to 500 bar. Serveo has worked closely with Hiperbaric to ensure that this installation is a worldwide reference in terms of efficiency and sustainability.
The new hydrogen plant covers the entire hydrogen cycle: production, compression, storage and distribution of green hydrogen in a totally innovative integrated engineering project, with an investment of 11.3 million euros, co-financed with a contribution of 2.65 million euros from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
At the end of the works, which have been executed since December 2022 on an area of 49,618 m², this hydrogen production plant is already supplying the first buses of the Portuguese manufacturer CaetanoBus. This facility produces hydrogen from a water electrolysis process, developed entirely by Spanish companies, including Hiperbaric, and whose design, construction and management has been carried out by EMT Madrid.
The installation has the following components of national manufacture: a PEM technology electrolyzer capable of producing about 18 kg of hydrogen per hour, a hydrogen compressor group of Hiperbaric, three storage tanks at low, medium and high pressure and two pumps for refueling buses.
The inauguration of this hydrogen plant is just the beginning. It is expected that in the coming years new hydrogen infrastructures will be deployed throughout Spain and Europe, which will allow greater penetration of fuel cell vehicles in the market.
Hiperbaric High Pressure Compressors
To increase hydrogen density, compression is the most efficient and economical method. Already compressed hydrogen can be supplied at various pressures to a vehicle between 350 bar. The hydrogen plant of the EMT of Madrid has KS50 equipment with two compressors. They are installed in a 20-foot container where the compressors, the refrigeration circuit, the pressure and temperature sensors and the high pressure circuit are located in an Atex 2 zone.
In this video, you can see the main components of the compressor unit:
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