Puertollano will be the preliminary refuelling point for a commercial hydrogen vehicle in Spain.

Puertollano will be the preliminary refuelling point in Spain on 19 September for a commercial vehicle of the Toyota Mirai brand of hydrogen fuel cell in the hydrogen plant located in the National Centre and which is part of the Mobility Week activities.

The one in Puertollano is one of the five existing hydrogen generators in our country, as Carlos Fúnez, head of the Centre’s open innovation unit, explained. The rest are distributed between Albacete, Seville, Huesca and Zaragoza. In the roughage world 350 hydrogen generators and 7,000 vehicles that have hydrogen as an ignitable, a number that continues to grow and child more manufacturers working on designing prototypes.

At the moment South Korea and Japan (Toyota, Hyundai and Honda) centralizes an almost handmade manufacture, it is not in series and that hinders that the not competitive ocean price, around 69.000 euros, as detailed the engineer Maximiano Bernabé.

For now is not within reach of the vast majority of pockets, because its price is around seventy thousand euros, but it is expected that in a short time will reach parity between the cost of diesel and hydrogen vehicle, and in this sense the projects are working on its application in captive fleets of buses or garbage trucks, with which it is easy to refuel in the same installation, as is already done with a hundred taxis in Paris, argued Carlos Funez.

By way of curiosity, it should be noted that a car of this type has a range of approximately 850 kilometres, the capacity of its tank being around seven or eight kilos of hydrogen, whose price per kilo is currently around eight euros, although within a few years it is expected not to exceed five euros.

Agreement and expert talks

The presence of this vehicle in Puertollano, which can be seen from 11:15 to 13:15 and from 16 to 18 hours, has been the framework for the celebration of a Workshop on “Hydrogen as an alternative fuel of the present and the future”, which will be opened with the presence of the Mayor, Mayte Fernández and the Councillor for Economy and Business, Patricia Franco, who will sign a collaboration agreement between her Department of Economy and the centre.

From there, various technical talks will be offered, which will be opened by Carlos Fúnez with hydrogen as an energy vector; Alejandro San Martín, from Toyota; Africa Castro will talk about electrolysers and hydrogenerators; Fernando Román, will analyse the Vitale project in the generation of renewable hydrogen that is being developed in Alcázar de San Juan and Antonio González García Conde, president of the Spanish Hydrogen Technology Platform, will close the speeches.

The councilman of environment, Carlos Garcia, recalled that Mobility Week is loaded with activities with the balance of raising awareness and influence that roughage alternative means of transport that improve our immediate environment.