ITM Power, Shell open UK hydrogen car refuelling station

Clean fuel company ITM and oil producer Shell on Tuesday opened the UK's first refuelling station to offer hydrogen alongside petrol and diesel.

ITM said hydrogen would be produced on site at the Shell station at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire on the M40 motorway using an electrolyser that requires only water and electricity to generate the hydrogen gas.

The station is the fifth hydrogen refuelling site in the UK to be supplied by ITM Power and the first opened as part of the Hydrogen Mobility Europe 2 project.

ITM chief executive Dr Graham Cooley said the new station was “a big step forward in offering Shell customers a clean, green fuel, which is generated on-site, eliminating fuel deliveries”.

“We look forward to working alongside Shell to deploy further stations and grow the hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in the UK."

Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles convert hydrogen into electricity to power the engine and produce only heat and water when driven. They can travel up to 700 kilometres on a single tank and can be refuelled in a few minutes, Shell said in a joint statement with ITM.