The HySPARK project, implemented by ORLEN and a consortium of 17 international partners, has become the first in Poland to secure funding from the European Union’s Clean Hydrogen Partnership program. The funds, totaling nearly 9 million EUR, will be used for the production and testing of hydrogen vehicles for use at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport and in the city’s public transportation system.
The innovative hydrogen vehicles produced as part of the HySPARK program will be powered by fuel supplied from ORLEN’s HUB in Włocławek. A station at Chopin Airport is expected to be operational by 2026, thanks to funding from the European CEF Transport AFIF Clean Cities phase II program. Hydrogen-powered buses will be provided by ARTHUR BUS, hydrogen tractors by Quantron, and ground service trolleys for the Chopin Airport by the Italian company ATENA. The vehicles will be used by Warsaw City Buses, ORLEN, and LS Airport Services.
Grzegorz Jóźwiak, Director of Hydrogen Technology and Synthetic Fuels, states, “Hydrogen is a safe, alternative energy source and one of the pillars of transformation, which will undoubtedly play an important role in transportation. Several municipalities in Poland are already using hydrogen buses from ORLEN, and our first publicly accessible hydrogen station for private cars is operational in Poznań. The next step will be testing vehicles for ground handling at Chopin Airport and bus public transport in Warsaw. The development and popularization of hydrogen fuels involve large investments, so I am delighted that it is our consortium that has obtained EU funds for this purpose.”
HySPARK (Hydrogen Solutions for European Airports & Regional Kinetics) involves a wide collaboration of 17 partners from 5 countries: Poland, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Over the coming years, they will develop a hydrogen distribution market in Central Poland. ORLEN will coordinate the business aspect of the project, while the Energy Institute – the National Research Institute (IEN-PIB), will oversee the administrative and research-development aspects.
The research and development activities within the project will be provided by IEN-PIB, the Warsaw University of Technology, RINA, and Bureau Veritas Poland. The City of Warsaw, the Industry Development Agency, the Foundation in the Climate, and two international airports, SEA Milan Airports, and Aer Arann Islands, will be responsible for disseminating information about the project. The project is also supported by TOYOTA Central Europe, the Polish Aviation Group, ANWIL, the Transport Technical Inspection, Gdańsk Airport, and the Polish Association for New Mobility.
The ORLEN Group plans to build a network of over 100 hydrogen refueling stations for private, public, and cargo transport, as well as for rail transport in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia by 2030. Hydrogen will be supplied to these stations through a European network of hydrogen hubs powered by renewable energy sources and innovative installations processing municipal waste into zero and low-emission hydrogen. By 2030, the total capacity of electrolysers in the ORLEN Group will be approximately 1 GW, which, combined with waste-to-hydrogen projects, will enable the production of over 130 thousand tons of renewable hydrogen per year by the end of the current decade.
Source: https://managerplus.pl/projekt-hyspark-orlenu-z-unijnym-grantem-na-projekty-wodorowe-21312
