Wuppertal invests in hydrogen-powered fuel cell buses for local public transport
Fuel cell buses will be driving through Wuppertal from 2019: the project is funded by the European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and is intended to help reduce emissions in the city. The aim of the responsible Wuppertal municipal utilities and AWG Abfallwirtschaftsgesellschaft mbH Wuppertal is to make local public transport even more environmentally friendly. To ensure that the new buses do not run out of "fuel", Wuppertal is investing in the hydrogen infrastructure of Maximator GmbH. As general contractor, the plant specialist from Nordhausen is taking on the planning, implementation and installation of the entire system, thereby entering a promising market.
As part of the "H2-W hydrogen mobility for Wuppertal" project of the Wuppertal municipal utilities, representatives of AWG Abfallwirtschaftsgesellschaft mbH Wuppertal and Maximator GmbH signed the contract for the planning, delivery, installation and commissioning of the hydrogen infrastructure in the presence of representatives of WSW mobil GmbH. The project is now entering the concrete implementation phase: Maximator is designing its first hydrogen refueling station to supply fuel to the planned hydrogen-powered fuel cell buses for local public transport. Conrad Tschersich, Managing Director of AWG, and Andreas Meyer from WSW mobil agree that they have found the right partner in Maximator: "We are delighted to have found a specialist in Maximator that will support and accompany our 'environmentally friendly local transport' project with its expertise in a forward-looking manner."
Under the leadership of Robert Adler, head of Maximator Advanced Technology GmbH in Vienna, which was founded in 2017, the company is developing core components such as the MAX Compression hydrogen compressor with automated seal exchange for the tank system, which will be handed over to AWG as a turnkey solution next year.
The system expert from Nordhausen will be responsible for the planning, implementation and installation as general contractor. The hydrogen infrastructure consists of Maximator's MAX-Compression high-pressure compressors for hydrogen compression, which were presented for the first time at the Hannover Messe 2017, as well as an electrolyzer for hydrogen production and a hydrogen storage tank in which the fuel is stored at approx. 450 bar.
The system for Wuppertal is the first hydrogen refueling station developed by Maximator. René Himmelstein from Maximator on the project: "We are very proud to be able to support the H2-W project of Wuppertal's municipal utilities with our expertise in the field of hydrogen infrastructure." The solution has met with great interest, which is why further facilities are already being planned.