Hydrogen bus tested in Czechia’s Most region as hydrogen refuelling station opens

The first hydrogen refuelling station in the Ústí nad Labem Region opened today near the Záluží petrochemical complex in Litvínov. It is supplied with hydrogen from the neighbouring Orlen Unipetrol chemical plant. In the future, it will be so-called green hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources. For two weeks, the station will be used by a hydrogen bus in a pilot operation, with the bus running on selected routes in Most and Litvínov. After analysing the costs, the public transport company, owned by both cities, will decide whether to purchase the vehicle.

The low-floor, eight-metre bus developed in Slovakia can carry up to 68 passengers, including 20 seated. The fully air-conditioned vehicle can travel 350 kilometres on hydrogen and another 100 kilometres on battery power. Refilling its four hydrogen tanks takes ten minutes. The bus will operate on routes in Most and Litvínov from 29 June to 9 July. “The hydrogen bus will be operating in real-world conditions. We will assess the data collected on consumption and operating costs and decide based on the analysis. However, we would be foolish not to take advantage of having hydrogen right between the two cities,” Most Mayor Marek Hrvol (ProMOST) told CTK. After the summer trial, a further test run will take place in the winter months, according to Litvínov Mayor Kamila Bláhová (ANO).

“This is the first bus we are using for promotional purposes; it has passed all the type-approval tests. We built it a year and a half ago, and have been driving and promoting it ever since,” János Onódi of Mobility&Innovation Production told CTK.

“Currently, the key components used to build the bus are a little more expensive. We expect their prices to fall dramatically, which will affect the price of the vehicle,” he said. The company already has orders to manufacture these vehicles, he added.

The hydrogen refuelling station between the cities of northern Bohemia is the fourth in the Czech Republic. It cost around 47 million crowns to build, with nearly 36 million coming from European funding. Orlen Unipetrol has already secured European funding for three more hydrogen stations, in Prague, Brno and Ostrava.

Orlen Unipetrol aims to supply the refuelling station with so-called green hydrogen, which it will produce from renewable energy sources directly at the chemical complex, where a solar power plant could be built. “At this point, it is hydrogen that we produce ourselves,” Orlen Unipetrol board member Tomáš Hering told CTK. The chemical plant uses hydrogen to produce fuels and ammonia, and in small quantities in plastics.

The Czech Republic is lagging behind in the development of hydrogen mobility. Neighbouring Germany already has more than 100 hydrogen stations, with more being added rapidly. The first station in the Czech Republic opened only the year before last in Ostrava, the second this year in Prague’s Barrandov district, and the third at a Čepra depot in Mstětice near Prague. According to Transport Minister Martin Kupka (ODS), up to 50.000 hydrogen-powered cars could be on Czech roads by 2030.