![Mercedes-Benz_eActros_600_(1)[1]](https://d2cohhpa0jt4tw.cloudfront.net/Pictures/274x183/8/1/8/17818_mercedesbenz_eactros_600_11_556244.jpg)
HyHaul Mobility is pressing ahead with plans for what it claims will be the UK’s largest hydrogen refuelling station for HGVs, despite the government withdrawing funding from the original project after it failed to secure enough customers for fuel cell trucks.
The company has agreed a new, commercially funded deal with Fuel Cell Systems (FCS) to deliver a high-capacity hydrogen refuelling hub capable of serving up to 30 heavy goods vehicles a day.
The announcement comes ten months after the Department for Transport and Innovate UK ended grant funding for the original project because HyHaul had been unable to secure sufficient customer commitments for fuel cell HGVs.
HyHaul and FCS had originally been contracted in July 2025 to deliver hydrogen refuelling infrastructure at four sites along the M4 corridor under the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme.
That funding was withdrawn in December after the project failed to meet the required milestones for customer commitments.
Rather than abandon the project, HyHaul and FCS have now agreed a revised scope on commercial terms.
The new station will be located at one of HyHaul owner Protium’s existing green hydrogen production and distribution sites, with the location due to be announced before the end of the year.
FCS said the high-capacity site would provide the “reliable, high-availability refuelling” needed by operators running zero-emission trucks on intensive commercial duty cycles, and would give fleets greater confidence to deploy fuel cell HGVs at scale.
Christopher Jackson, CEO and founder of Protium, said: “HyHAUL set out to prove that green hydrogen trucking works on real routes, and that ambition has not changed. What has changed is how we get there.”
He said the new agreement would put “a serious piece of refuelling capability into the UK market” alongside Protium’s existing assets.
FCS will design, manufacture, test and deliver the complete high-capacity refuelling system, including its HyFleet refueller, hydrogen storage, gas panels and tube-trailer interfaces.
The system will be capable of dispensing hydrogen at both 350 bar and 700 bar, with storage configured into four banks and automatic bank selection to support high-throughput, back-to-back fuelling of heavy-duty vehicles.
Tom Chicken, CEO of Fuel Cell Systems, said the combination of secure hydrogen supply and fast refuelling was designed around “real commercial demands”.
The revised project represents a significant change in approach for HyHaul. The original ZEHID project depended on government support and customer commitments to establish a network of hydrogen stations along the M4 corridor. The new facility will instead be developed alongside Protium’s existing hydrogen production and distribution infrastructure.
Protium currently has three production sites and four distribution hubs. Its operational assets include the Pioneer 2 facility at Baglan, Port Talbot, and the South Coast Hydrogen Hub in Dorset. It has also received planning approval for the Cromarty Green Hydrogen Production Facility in Scotland and a hub in South Teesside.
The company has continued to develop its hydrogen supply operation despite the difficulties in securing commercial demand for fuel cell HGVs.
This summer, Protium produced and supplied green hydrogen for a light commercial vehicle trial with gas distribution network Wales & West Utilities and Ford. Hydrogen produced at Pioneer 2 was transported to support WWU fleet operations in Swansea using 350-bar, 360kg tube trailers.
The new HyHaul agreement therefore puts the emphasis firmly on commercial deployment rather than demonstration funding — although the project’s eventual success will still depend on fleets committing to hydrogen HGVs and using the new infrastructure.
