First Hydrogen Production Station To Open Soon

HW Richardson will be ready to open its first hydrogen production and dual-refuelling station at its Clifton site in coming months.

Resource consent was approved for the original site in Gore back in 2023, before the company decided to pivot and concentrate on establishing one at its new 20ha freight precinct adjoining its Intermodal facility at Clifton instead.

Chief executive Anthony Jones said because the use of hydrogen as a sustainable fuel solution was a nascent industry and still in its infancy, a lot of people were still learning, but the new Clifton site was the most logical place for the new facility.

This was due to the large volumes of freight emanating from the location, making fuel available for trucks, trains and potentially even planes.

The company planned on opening its first site a year ago, but was waiting to finalise the installation and commissioning of the hydrogen electrolyser.

“It’s almost complete, we’re just waiting on the critical components of the electrolyser,” which would enable hydrogen to be produced from water through electrolysis.

Using a dual fuel approach (heavy vehicles running on both hydrogen and diesel), the company believes this will allow the entire heavy transport industry to transition as an alternative fuel in a way that is accessible, fair and equitable.

HW Richardson has two streams for what it was doing with the hydrogen - one was to supply fuel to customers and the other to convert trucks with the companies dual-fuel technology.

The company launched New Zealand’s first dual-fuel truck Blue Hydro fitted with a conversion unit at its Dynes Transport company in Tapanui in April 2023.

The conversion unit was how HWR Hydrogen and CH2nge Fuel Technologies introduced hydrogen to the heavy transport industry while there was still limited infrastructure throughout the country.

The company now had 15 trucks converted so far, HWR is working closely with the likes of Hiringa Energy who have installed a fuel network in the North Island, Hiringa bring the fuel and CH2nge dual-fuel brings the demand.

“There is good industry demand for this. It has been overwhelmingly positive,” Anthony said.

Since then another 12 conversion kits have also been sold overseas, and while HW Richardson has plans to establish a network of hydrogen refuelling stations throughout New Zealand, when the demand grows, it was the dual fuel that they are most excited about.

“We are in it for the long haul…. it’s about building the future but we need to look at how does it make sense for the whole of New Zealand.”

Anthony said the next hydrogen refuelling station would most likely be in Christchurch in conjunction with Allied Petroleum.

As the heavy freight industry faced the choice of upgrading to either hydrogen or electric, the first choice was better for heavy mass long distance as the trucks didn’t lose any payload, and with dual fuel as a first step, it reduces overall carbon emissions by 40%. Fuel Cell Hydrogen vehicles are zero emissions, producing only water vapour.

“It’s amazingly well received around New Zealand and Australia and we’ve been talking to companies in Europe as well.”