Port of Valencia is testing a hydrogen reachstacker

The Port of Valencia will be the first port in Europe to incorporate hydrogen technologies to reduce the environmental impact of its terminal machinery operations.

From January, the Port of Valencia will be testing a hydrogen station which will provide the fuel for equipment as part of the H2Ports project.

The first piece of equipment to be tested is a reachstacker powered by hydrogen and put through its paces at MSC Terminal Valencia. This will be accompanied by a 4×4 tractor unit equipped with a fuel cell stack which will be tested in loading/unloading operations at Grimaldi Group's Valencia Terminal Europa.

"These are very important machines in the Port of Valencia because they are in operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and within our objectives and calculations of emissions, the terminal machinery represents almost 25% of the emissions that we want to reduce through this type of energy," explains APV head of ecological transition Federico Torres.

The hydrogen supply station (HRS) is being developed at the National Hydrogen Centre, and will include a fixed installation that will be dedicated to receiving and storing hydrogen from an external supplier and compressing it to delivery pressure, and a mobile part that will store the compressed hydrogen and include a hydrogen dispenser for refuelling the port machinery.

The H2Ports project is a collaboration between the Valenciaport Foundation and the Port Authority and is financed by the European Union's Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) program. Its main objective is to test and validate hydrogen technologies on port machinery to provide applicable and real solutions without affecting the performance and safety of port operations, and producing zero local emissions.

Hyster-Yale and Ballard Power Systems Europe are among the private sector participants.