Hungary's 1st Hydrogen Filling Station Opens, Free to Use

The first hydrogen filling station in Hungary, operated by Linde Gas Hungary Plc., has opened in Budapest, where 4,000 kilograms of hydrogen can be filled up after prior registration, it was announced on Friday.

On the second day of the two-day international conference Hydrogen Open 2024, the Hungarian Hydrogen Technology Association signed a strategic cooperation agreement with oil and gas company Mol, MÁV Hungarian Railways, national bus company Volánbusz and transport firm Waberer's to promote the use of hydrogen fuel cell transport in Hungary.

Mol's primary goal is to play a leading role in the production, transport and storage of hydrogen, György Bacsa, managing director of Mol Hungary, told MTI.

The production of hydrogen is significantly more expensive than other alternative fuels, and the spread of the technology requires the right infrastructure, scale and financial support, he added.

The four companies involved in the strategic cooperation are coordinating their development plans and jointly developing concepts for the dissemination of hydrogen fuel cell transport and the construction of the necessary infrastructure.

Speaking about Mol's developments, he said that the green hydrogen investment at the Danube Refinery in Százhalombatta will enable the company to produce 1,600 tons of carbon neutral hydrogen from renewable electricity from 2024.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles can be an uncompromising alternative to conventional diesel-powered heavy-duty vehicles, Zsolt Barna, CEO of Waberer's International Plc. said. It is expected that in two years' time, state-of-the-art Waberer's fuel cell vehicles will be on Hungarian roads.

In the statement, MÁV CEO Zoltán Pafféri said that the MÁV-Volán Group aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, and as part of this, green strategy targets have been developed, and at the beginning of 2022, hydrogen-powered buses were tested for three weeks.