The Port of València will be the first port in Europe to incorporate hydrogen technologies to reduce the environmental impact of its terminal machinery operations running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Aurelio Martínez stresses that Valenciaport “is pioneering the development of these infrastructures in our commitment to “Valenciaport 2030, zero emissions”.

The hydrogen plant is part of H2Ports, a project led by the Valenciaport Foundation and the Valencia Port Authority.

From January, the Port of Valencia will have a “hydrogen station” or green hydrogen supply station. The station will be mobile and will provide the necessary fuel, in the appropriate conditions and quantities to guarantee the continuous working cycles of the equipment forming part of the H2Ports project. The first of this equipment will be the machine or prototype of the Reach Stacker vehicle or “container stacker” which will be powered by this energy and which will be tested at MSC Terminal Valencia.  The second piece of equipment to be serviced by the hydrogen plant will be a 4×4 tractor unit equipped with a fuel cell stack for testing in loading/unloading operations at Grimaldi Group’s Valencia Terminal Europa.

“These are very important machines in the Port of Valencia because they are in operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and within our objectives and calculations of emissions, the terminal machinery represents almost 25% of the emissions that we want to reduce through this type of energy,” explains the head of Ecological Transition of the APV, Federico Torres.

The hydrogen supply station (HRS) is being developed at the National Hydrogen Centre, and will include a fixed part that will be dedicated to receiving and storing hydrogen from an external supplier and compressing it to delivery pressure, and a mobile part that will store the compressed hydrogen and include a hydrogen dispenser for refuelling the port machinery. The HRS will consist of three main components: a low-pressure hydrogen tank into which the hydrogen supplier will discharge, a two-stage water-cooled piston hydrogen compressor with heat exchangers integrated into the system, and a mobile high-pressure hydrogen storage and supply unit, consisting of two hydrogen storage stages at 300 and 450 bar and a 350 bar dispenser for heavy vehicle with communications.

Commitment to sustainability

“This is a clear commitment of the Port Authority of Valencia to sustainability, and demonstrates the firm commitment of the (PAV) to the Valenciaport 2030 objective, zero emissions,” according to the president of the PAV, Aurelio Martínez.  “We are currently coordinating with the National Hydrogen Centre the location of this facility in the Port of Valencia. The work will begin in January, so once again we will be pioneering and taking a step forward with this type of infrastructure, in our commitment to sustainability”. “It is a project – emphasises Aurelio Martínez – that is focusing the attention of other port facilities, as the president of the Port of Hamburg told us in the meeting we had a few days ago”.

The president of the PAV, Aurelio Martínez, has already highlighted this week, during the presentation of the “H2VLC Valencia Hydrogen Valley” project at the València City Hall, that Valencia is the first European port to adopt the use of hydrogen in port operations through the H2Ports project, a project we have been working on for several years and which is part of Valenciaport’s commitment to decarbonisation and the fight against climate change. In addition to projects such as this one with hydrogen, – he said – we have all the environmental certifications, we monitor noise, water or air quality indexes or measured since 2008 the carbon footprint, which since then has been reduced by 30% while traffic has grown by 42%. Our commitment is obvious and the results are there”.

 The project that will bring hydrogen

The European project that will enable Valencia and its port to work and move port machinery with hydrogen is called “H2PORTS – Implementing Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Technologies in Ports”. It is a development coordinated by the Valenciaport Foundation in close collaboration with the Port Authority, and is financed by the European Union’s Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) programme. Its main objective is to test and validate hydrogen technologies on port machinery to provide applicable and real solutions without affecting the performance and safety of port operations and producing zero local emissions.

The H2Ports project will involve a total investment of 4 million euros and involves, in addition to the Valenciaport Foundation and the Valencia Port Authority, the National Hydrogen Centre and the private companies MSC Terminal Valencia, Grimaldi Group, Hyster-Yale, Atena Distretto Alta Tecnologia Energia Ambiente, Ballard Power Systems Europe and Enagás.