(13 Nov 04)

Keeping pace with similar developments in the US, the first public hydrogen filling station in Berlin has just opened for business. As well as petrol and diesel pumps, the station offers two different kinds of hydrogen, which marks it out from most other multi-fuel outlets of this kind - not that there are many of them, anyway.

With BMW as a partner in the project, this facility is part of the national German strategy of building a hydrogen supply infrastructure, in which ten different car manufacturing and energy firms are involved.

The Berlin station can supply both CGH2 fuel - that's Compressed Gaseous Hydrogen - and LH2 or Liquefied Hydrogen, the latter being favoured in the short term by BMW, because of its higher energy density and the longer range it allows.

BMW, of course, is well ahead with its project to market a dual-fuel 7-Series, with a conventional engine able to run on either petrol or LH2, some time during the current model's production life. As part of the Berlin hydrogen project, the company says that an "entire fleet" of its hydrogen-powered vehicles will be stationed in the city.

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