The regulation signed by the European Parliament "to build a hydrogen refueling station every 200 kilometers" will come into force in 2024

Recently, the European Parliament formally adopted a new regulation requiring the construction of a hydrogen refueling station every 200 kilometers on the core roads of the EU by 2031, and a second regulation obliging maritime ship operators to use at least 1% renewable fuel by 2034.

The European Parliament's signature is an important step towards the entry into force of the regulation, which is expected to be formally adopted by the European Council at the end of July 2023 and enter into force at the beginning of 2024.

In March 2023, the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on regulations, the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (hereinafter referred to as AFIR) and the Sustainable Marine Fuels Regulation (hereinafter referred to as SMF), which incorporated the FuelEU Maritime Initiative, making the adoption of the bill a simple formality.

AFIR passed by 514 votes in favour and 52 against, while SMF passed by 555 votes in favour and 48 against.

The SMF regulations will force ship operators to use at least 1 percent biosourced renewable fuel (RFNBO) by 2034, typically green hydrogen and its derivatives, such as green ammonia and green methanol.

The European Commission has found that the ship operating industry will not meet the 1% target by 2031. The regulation also sets a new greenhouse gas reduction target for the shipping industry, with a 2% reduction from 2020 levels by 2025, increasing to 80% by 2050. The regulation allows ship operators to calculate RFNBO's greenhouse gas savings twice before the end of 2033 as a means of further incentivizing early use of the fuel. The regulation only applies to ships with gross tonnage of more than 5,000 tons, which the EU says account for 90 percent of the bloc's maritime emissions.

At the same time, AFIR expects EU member states to deploy hydrogen refueling infrastructure every 200 kilometers along all "city nodes" (the EU term for 424 major cities with ports, airports and rail terminals) and along the Trans-European Transport network (TEN-T) connecting these city nodes. TEN-T refueling stations should be located on the roadside or within a 10-km drive of TEN-T exit. Considering that light vehicles are less likely to use hydrogen as fuel, AFIR rules state that hydrogen refueling stations should focus on hydrogen heavy trucks and also allow the public to use light vehicles.

Hydrogen stations should provide 70 mpa of gaseous hydrogen, and operators should develop hydrogen station sites to accommodate other forms of hydrogen transportation, such as liquefied hydrogen, to lay the foundation for future growth in hydrogen applications.

The regulation mandates additional rules for electric vehicle charging stations, with one charging station built every 60 kilometers for electric vehicles by 2026 and one charging station built every 120 kilometers for electric trucks and buses by 2028.