The official opening of the first hydrogen charging station for Bulgaria and the region will take place today at 11:00 a.m., on Iskarsko Shose Street. 11, in Sofia (entrance to the site from "Munchen" street), BTA reported. This was announced by the Competence Center (CC) "Hitmobile", the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and the Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems "Acad. Evgeni Budevski" at the BAS.
With the hydrogen charging station, which is part of the infrastructure of the field laboratory "Integrated energy systems" of the Central Committee "Hitmobile", the beginning of hydrogen electric mobility in the country is set. In the construction of the site, the main executive activities are the work of the companies "Delektra", "Aquachim" and "Monbat".
The hydrogen charging station, made by the Austrian company EDC-ANLAGENTECHNIK, has the possibility of charging at the two standard pressures for compressed hydrogen - 350 and 700 bar. Hydrogen can enter the charging station through two inlets. One is connected to an electrolyser with a capacity of 8.5 kilograms per day, which produces hydrogen on site with renewable energy from the photovoltaic park in the field laboratory.
The hydrogen produced in this way is of very high purity, sufficient for direct use in vehicles. Through the second inlet, hydrogen can come from bottle groups supplied from other sources, which allows to achieve a greater charging capacity of the station if necessary. The station's high-pressure vessels can store up to 70 kilograms of compressed hydrogen, which can provide up to 7,000 kilometers of range. Its capabilities for compressing hydrogen are on the order of 40-50 kilograms per day, which is enough for daily charging of 10-15 cars or two buses.
Once compressed in the high pressure vessels, the hydrogen can be used to charge cars without the charging process requiring external energy. This is one of the advantages of hydrogen mobility, especially at times of peak electricity consumption.
With the opening of the hydrogen charging station, the realization of the planned scientific research program of the Central Committee "Hitmobile" begins. for the production of hydrogen by electrolysis of water with electricity from RES and its use in the transport sector. The ambition of the team is, through proactive cooperation with business, to demonstrate the possibilities of hydrogen technologies and thus to give a positive impulse for their accelerated introduction in the country, notes the BAS.
As BTA wrote, at the final press conference in December 2023 of the "Hitmobile" Competence Center. the "Integrated Energy Systems" field laboratory was presented. Special attention was paid to the first hydrogen charging station in Bulgaria, which is already part of the infrastructure of the CC "Hitmobile". The event took place in the conference hall of the leading organization - Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems (IEES) "Acad. Evgeni Budevski" at the BAS, and was opened by the director of the institute Assoc. Dr. Plamen Nikolov.
“The project "Hitmobile" is not only important for us, it is important for the whole country, because it is part of our efforts to turn Bulgaria into a leader in clean energy and to contribute to the fight against climate change, said Prof. Nikolov.
At the event art.-cor. Evelina Slavcheva made a presentation in which she noted some of the most important achievements during the implementation of the project "Hitmobile Competence Center - technologies and systems for generation, storage and consumption of clean energy", briefly following the chronology of its implementation. Then it became known that the project activities are carried out in six specialized laboratories in our country.
The hydrogen charging station and a hydrogen car, which are part of the "Integrated Energy Systems" field laboratory, which is part of the infrastructure of the Competence Center (CC) "Hitmobile", are the first in Bulgaria and the region. Blagoi Burdin, who is an associate professor at the Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems (IEES) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), said this in an interview for BTA in January of this year on the occasion of the first hydrogen charging station in our country.
In the interview for BTA, Prof. Burdin explained then that this hydrogen car, which was presented by the Central Committee "Hitmobile", is in serial production, is available and there is still demand. He explained that the price of a hydrogen car is no different than that of a high-end battery (note car - fully electric) car because they are equivalent.
When asked why hydrogen cars have not yet entered mass use, Burdin replied that the problem lies in the infrastructure. If electric cars can be charged even at home, hydrogen cars cannot. In order to store the required amount of hydrogen in a tank, a hydrogen station is needed. It is a compressor station that compresses hydrogen to the required pressure. This facility is quite specific. Such a compressor station is still quite expensive and for a small scale it still does not make sense. What has been said for years is that this first step, which is the most difficult, should be skipped. We are not even talking about one station, but a certain number of charging stations at certain distances to create this critical infrastructure, added Prof. Burdin. He specified then that pure hydrogen is used in transport so as not to damage the car's fuel cell.