Container vehicle for liquid hydrogen at hydrogen rufuelling station of ARAL/CEP Berlin.

Gases and engineering company Linde is bringing technology to North America that will make it faster and easier to fill up vehicles with hydrogen.

Mike McGowan, Linde North America's head of hydrogen solutions, says Linde's 700-bar fast-fill technology, developed for European hydrogen refuelling stations, is industry-leading.

"The technology enables us to completely fill cars in as little as three minutes," McGowan says. "Expanding our vehicle refuelling capabilities in North America gives customers greater access to our strong hydrogen supply network and world-class engineering expertise."

Linde sold its forklift business to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners in 2006 to focus on its gases and engineering business (Forkliftaction.com News #285). It has equipped over 70 hydrogen refuelling stations in 15 countries and amounts supplied range from a few hundred cubic feet of compressed hydrogen in cylinders to thousands of tons of liquid and gaseous hydrogen delivered by pipeline or tanker truck.

"Linde has partnered with a variety of manufacturers, including automotive, forklift and battery makers on multiple projects. This experience combined with our global size and scale enables us to execute projects safely and successfully," McGowan says.

Experts from Linde North America and Linde Gas GmbH in Vienna presented at the National Hydrogen Association's 19th annual conference held from 30 March to 3 April in Sacramento, California and the Compressed Gas Association's annual hydrogen seminar that was part of the conference.

Linde employs around 50,000 people in 100 countries and achieved sales of EUR12.3 billion (USD19.2 billion) in the 2007 financial year. It divested its forklift business shortly after taking over British gas group BOC plc.