Gas and engineering company BOC and bp Australia have agreed to build the first service station in the country with hydrogen refueling capability. Scheduled to open later this year, the facility will be located at the bp Truckstop in Lytton, Queensland.

The Queensland government’s current fleet of five hydrogen-powered Hyundai NEXOs will be the first to use the new refueller.

A Linde company, BOC will supply and install the Linde hydrogen refueling station, which will dispense green hydrogen produced by BOC at its nearby Bulwer Island production site. The green hydrogen will be produced by a 220-kW electrolyser powered by solar energy generated onsite.

“Working closely with our partner bp, we will demonstrate how state-of-the-art hydrogen refueling stations can be safely integrated into the existing service station network, paving the way for more infrastructure to facilitate hydrogen trucks and buses,” said John Evans, managing director of BOC South Pacific.

"Hydrogen will play an important part in the future energy and mobility mix, and partnerships – such as this one between government, BOC and bp – will be essential in decarbonizing industry and transport,” said Frédéric Baudry, president, bp Australia and SVP fuels & low carbon solutions, Asia Pacific.

He said it was critical that locally made fuel continued to be available to power our heavy transport sector as it moved to lower its emissions and looked forward to supporting more green hydrogen initiatives from traditional fuel suppliers.

“The importance of this for our economic future cannot be overstated because this is another link in the supply chain, ensuring Queensland cements its status as a global force in the hydrogen industry,” said Minister for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen Mick De Brenni.

The hydrogen refueling station will have capacity to refill a hydrogen car in 3-5 minutes and in the future will be made available to drivers with a bp plus card who register with bp for access to the supply of hydrogen.

Linde has installed over 200 hydrogen refueling stations globally and successfully completed the hydrogen refueling of over 1.5 million cars, buses and forklifts.