Bulgaria's first hydrogen charging station has been built

Bulgaria's first hydrogen charging station has been built as part of the "Integrated Energy Systems" laboratory.

The charging station is Bulgaria's first step towards fuel cell electric vehicles, which are mobile and run on green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is produced by an electrolysis unit with a capacity of 8.5 kg per day, and the purity of hydrogen is 99.9995%. The time required to fill 1 kg of hydrogen is less than 10 minutes, and the compression speed is more than 3.5 kg/hour. The capacity of the high-pressure hydrogen storage tank is about 30 kg.

In accordance with the requirements for the deployment of this infrastructure, the Member States of the European Parliament and of the Council are to ensure that by 31 December 2030, there will be at least one publicly available hydrogen charging station every 200km of the main trans-European transport network, with a minimum cumulative hydrogen supply of at least 1 tonne per day, with relevant facilities at each city node.

According to the optimistic forecast made by the Bulgarian Electric Vehicle Industry Cluster for the arrival of hydrogen-powered vehicles in Bulgaria, 10 hydrogen refueling stations will be built by 2025 and 50 hydrogen refueling stations by 2030.

In addition to the construction of hydrogen refueling stations, the Bulgarian operator will also build the €860 million hydrogen pipeline project, which is part of the network development programme set out in the European Hydrogen Backbone Plan and is expected to be operational in 2029, suitable for the delivery of up to 100 percent hydrogen, and will be part of the future hydrogen corridor from Southeast Europe to Central Europe.