Industrial gases giant Air Liquide has installed the hydrogen fueling station at its Sassenage site in Isère, in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. A second, higher-capacity hydrogen station will be installed in nearby Grenoble in the autumn.

The HyWay project, coordinated by the Tenerrdis new energy technologies cluster, is the first French project that aims to deploy fleets of hydrogen-powered electric vehicles. It is jointly supported by the French government (through the DREAL vehicle testing agency and the ADEME Agency for Environment and Energy Management), as well as the Rhône-Alpes regional council.

A major project milestone was reached on 10 June, with the delivery of the first 21 Renault Kangoo ZE-H2 utility vehicles to Grenoble. These vehicles constitute the largest electric vehicle fleet currently deployed in Europe that is equipped with a hydrogen-powered range-extender, utilising a 5 kW PEM fuel cell supplied by Symbio FCell.

Air Liquide is supporting the HyWay project by investing in the development of the first station in Sassenage, at its own site, which will serve users such as the French postal service La Poste. It will also acquire three Kangoo ZE-H2 vehicles.

Air Liquide has hydrogen fueling stations in operation around the world, including in Saint-Lô in northwestern France, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Düsseldorf in Germany, part of the national hydrogen network in Denmark, in Nagoya and Toyota City in Japan, and plans for a network in the northeastern US in collaboration with Toyota Motor Sales USA.

The company is also providing hydrogen fueling for fuel cell powered forklifts at the major logistics platform of FM Logistic, near Orléans in central France.