Yesterday, the governor of Kronoberg County, Maria Arnholm, inaugurated Sweden’s first public hydrogen refueling station with green hydrogen produced locally from its own wind turbine. The facility is located in Älghult, in Uppvidinge municipality in Småland. The opening took place together with Metacon and Uppvidinge Vätgas in front an audience of of roughly 200 hydrogen pioneers, including representatives from Volvo Trucks. Metacon’s objective in the project has been to drive innovation and meet the needs of the growing hydrogen society. The opening in Älghult marks the start of further investments in hydrogen infrastructure for passenger and cargo transport, and an opportunity to showcase our and our partners’ innovative efforts and strong community commitment for a fossil-free transport sector and future.
The project is a major and concrete step towards reducing the use of fossil fuels on a larger scale. At the refueling station in Älghult, refueling with green hydrogen is now offered for both heavy transport and passenger cars.
What makes this gas station unique is partly that the hydrogen is produced in its own electrolyser, built in close proximity to the gas station, and partly that the electrolyser receives its electricity from a nearby wind turbine. In this way, Uppvidinge Vätgas becomes completely self-sufficient and no hydrogen needs to be bought in and transported to the refueling station from other suppliers. Trucks, buses and cars can thus be refueled with green hydrogen in Älghult, without burdening the Swedish electricity system.
The opening day was gilded by the presence of the governor of Kronoberg County, Maria Arnholm, who cut the ribbon and inaugurated the facility in front of over 200 interested visitors. The visitors were able to take part in demonstrations of the facility as well as a seminar on various ongoing hydrogen investments in Sweden. Speakers were Björn Aronsson, CEO of Hydrogen Sweden, Niclas Johnson, Sales Manager for Volvo Trucks Sweden. Fredrik Wigelius, Sales Manager for Toyota Sweden, Magnus Sahlin, CEO of Trelleborgs Energi, who shared their thoughts and knowledge on the future of hydrogen, its current needs and potential as an important future climate-neutral vehicle fuel. The shared passion and enthusiasm for hydrogen as a key to environmentally friendly transport reflected the participants’ shared desire to make a difference to our environment and future societies. Thorbjörn Bennesved for Uppvidinge Vätgas and Christer Wikner, CEO of Metacon talked about the importance of hydrogen for their companies and products and for the fossil-free society.
During the opening day, we had the privilege of showing and demonstrating the latest innovations in both hydrogen-powered vehicles with Volvo Trucks’ fuel cell truck as the headline act. But also battery-electric trucks from both Volvo and Scania were demonstrated in their intended function as transport trucks for hydrogen within the facility. On the passenger car side, Toyota displayed several examples of their acclaimed fuel cell car Mirai.
The now inaugurated facility in Älghult is part of Metacon’s investment in smaller scalable units for site-based hydrogen production. The plant can easily be expanded by adding more electrolysers and refueling stations. Similar facilities from Metacon can easily be adapted to the local availability of green electricity from one or more wind turbines, but also other electricity sources such as e.g. a solar cell park or small local hydropower plants can be used for local electricity production, and of course it is also possible to gain electricity by connecting to the electricity grid.
The facility in Älghult also demonstrates the possibility of easily transporting the hydrogen between the production unit and the refueling station, which provides the opportunity for easy delivery of locally produced hydrogen to a number of refueling stations placed where they are most needed. Metacon also produces plants that, with our own reforming technology, can convert fossil-free methane gas (Biogas) or ethanol to similarly produce green hydrogen on site, without the need for external electricity. The propellant can, for example, be produced from residual products from agriculture, the food industry, sewage treatment plants and more.
“I am extremely happy and proud that we have now built and inaugurated this ground-breaking facility and honored by the presence of all visitors including the Governor and leading vehicle manufacturers with hydrogen vehicles such as Volvo Trucks and Toyota. This is just the beginning of an exciting and important development of the hydrogen market. And what we have heard from the visitors today ensures that we can be involved in many future projects in Sweden and abroad”, comments Christer Wikner, CEO of Metacon.
“Fuel cell electric trucks will be suitable for long distances, where charging infrastructure is lacking or charging time is an obstacle, as a complement to battery electric trucks, and will become reality in the second half of this decade. Refueling infrastructure for hydrogen is needed for heavy vehicles and we at Volvo Trucks are very happy about Metacon and Uppvidinge Vätgas’ investment here in Småland. They are pioneers and we are proud to be involved in inaugurating this investment in sustainable transport”, says Niclas Johnson, sales manager, Volvo Trucks Sweden.
Thorbjörn Bennesved, Uppvidinge Vätgas, commented: “As a third-generation forest transport entrepreneur, it is a great moment that I, together with my partners in Uppvidinge and Metacon, now get to see the first part of our vision realized. We can’t build the vehicles we need but we can build gas stations. It is in the light of this fantastic honor and promise that Volvo Trucks is now coming and showing off the hydrogen trucks that my company wants to switch to in the future.”
For further information, please contact Christer Wikner, phone +46 (0)707 647389 or e-mail info@metacon.com
About Metacon AB (publ)
Metacon AB (publ) develops and manufactures energy systems for the production of hydrogen, heat and electricity. The products in the Reforming business area are based on a patented technology that generates hydrogen through catalytic steam reforming of biogas or other hydrocarbons. The development of Metacon’s reforming products is done within the wholly owned subsidiary Helbio S.A. in Patras, Greece. The business is focused on catalytic process chemistry and advanced reactors for highly efficient hydrogen production.
Metacon also offers complete integrated refueling stations for hydrogen and system solutions for the production of hydrogen through so-called electrolysis, a large and globally growing market for small and large-scale production of green hydrogen. Electrolysis is a process in which you drive a chemical reaction to split water by adding electricity. If the electricity used is non-fossil, the hydrogen will also be fossil-free and climate-neutral. Green hydrogen can be used in the transport sector, basic industry and the real estate sector, with a better environment and climate as a result.
www.metacon.com