Oxfordshire County Council has awarded an £825,500 contract for Hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to Hungerford-based Fuel Cell Systems.
The infrastructure is part of the Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Range Extended Fire Engine Prototype (Hyer Power) project, which is developing a prototype fire engine. The hydrogen production and refuelling rig will be installed at the Highways Depot at Drayton so that it can also provide access to hydrogen for hard to decarbonise heavy duty vehicles.
The council is part of a consortium that has been awarded Advanced power Centre (APC)/Innovate UK (IUK) funding to develop, test and trial up to three zero-emission hydrogen fuel-cell powered specialised vehicles, including a fire engine, an ambulance and a road sweeper. The lead partner is ULEMCo and the consortium includes the Fire and Rescue Service’s current fire appliance provider, Emergency One.
The £7.8m (including grant funding of £3.9m) project is developing a range extended zero-emission battery electric fire engine, with hydrogen fuel cells and a minimum of 16kg of onboard hydrogen fuel storage. The combination is intended to meet requirements for flexibility, emergency response and water pumping.
According to council documents the project will include specification and build of the prototype fire appliance, which will be tested by Oxfordshire Fire Service, while the council needs to provide a refuelling facility for the prototype trials.
Oxfordshire council published a tender for the facility in June last year, looking for supply of a green hydrogen refuelling facility as a turnkey solution covering design, build, commissioning and maintenance.
The planned hydrogen facility could benefit other council owned specialised and emergency fleets because assets would be owned by the county council at the end of the trial. Project resource costs are also met through grant funding.
