The capital of the Turia was the scene on Tuesday of the first working meeting of «H2PORTS – Implementing Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Technologies in Ports», a project aimed at implementing efficient solutions to reduce the environmental impact of operations developed in the port of Valencia. Thanks to this initiative, coordinated by the Valenciaport Foundation, in close collaboration with the Port Authority of Valencia, this enclave will become the first in Europe to incorporate hydrogen energy into its terminals.
H2PORTS, which has a total investment of four million euros and is financed by the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking program (FCH JU), is part of the energy strategy implemented in 2017 by Valenciaport, based on the use of hydrogen and of fuel cells as an alternative energy.
This first meeting, which was attended by the general director of the Valenciaport Foundation, Antonio Torregrosa, and the director of Environment and Security of the APV, Federico Torres, is the starting signal for the implementation of the use of hydrogen through pilot projects that will operate in real conditions in the port of Valencia and that will bridge the gap between prototypes and pre-commercial products. Specifically, three pilots will be tested that will operate in this dock: a container loading / unloading and transport reach stacker, powered by hydrogen; a terminal tractor for ro-ro operations, powered by hydrogen batteries, and a mobile hydrogen supply station that will provide the necessary fuel to guarantee the continuous work cycles of the aforementioned equipment and that in the initial phase of the project will work in the Grimaldi (Valencia Terminal Europa) and MSC terminals in the Port of Valencia.
