The corporation, which is consistently implementing the hydrogen strategy, announced earlier this year that it will provide the refueling infrastructure for trains produced by Alstom. The first hydrogen vehicles are likely to roll out on regional lines within two years.
“We are effectively implementing our hydrogen strategy, which supports our efforts to achieve carbon neutrality,” said Daniel Obajtek, president of the PKN Orlen management board. “By 2030, we intend to allocate about PLN 7.5bn [US$1.7bn) into investments. This will translate into a reduction of 1.6m tones of CO2 emissions and, most importantly, an increase in Poland’s energy security. Cooperation with Alstom is another important step that will strengthen our position as a regional leader in hydrogen technologies.”
Under the agreement, Alstom will cooperate with PKN in participating in proceedings organized by public rail transport operators. Alstom will be responsible for the supply of zero-emission trains powered by hydrogen fuel cells. In turn, PKN will be responsible for the distribution, storage, and supply of hydrogen fuel for these trains.
“We are consistently developing alternative energy sources, including hydrogen. This is the fuel of the future that will drive the energy transition in the long term. We have strong competences in this area, backed by experience. Cooperation with Alstom will enable us to implement pilot hydrogen projects in public rail transport and strengthen our position in Poland and the whole Central European region,” said Józef Węgrecki, PKN Orlen management board member for operations.
Sławomir Cyza, president and managing director of Alstom in Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic States, added, “We have been using hydrogen technology in railway transport for years and we are the first company in the world to start commercial passenger transport with hydrogen trains, which are completely emission-free and, what is important, partly produced in Poland. We were the first to introduce high-speed trains to Poland - 20 Pendolino trains. I hope that Alstom will also be the first to introduce hydrogen trains to Poland.”
In 2018, Alstom was the world’s first manufacturer to put the Coradia iLint hydrogen train into commercial service. Cooperation with PKN ORLEN will allow Alstom to realize its ambition of technological leadership more effectively in rail transport, as well as Poland's ambition as one of the key countries where hydrogen technologies are being developed and implemented.
In response to challenges connected with energy transformation, Orlen Group has prepared a Hydrogen Strategy 2030, integrated with the Orlen 2030 Business Strategy. The document defines the company’s goals until the end of the decade and long-term ambitions in four key areas: mobility, refining and petrochemicals, industry and energy, and research and development.
The hydrogen strategy assumes the use of hydrogen in urban public transport and railways. To this end, PKN has already signed letters of intent to cooperate with more than 20 Polish cities and companies that are potential hydrogen recipients.
In 2021, an analytical laboratory for hydrogen research and the first hydrogen hub was commissioned in Trzebinia, which is currently producing grey hydrogen for transport, but will eventually produce low-emission hydrogen from renewable energy sources. By the end of this decade, 10 hydrogen hubs are to be operational in Włocławek and Płock, among others.
Meanwhile, by 2025, a hydrogen laboratory will be established at the Research and Development Centre in Płock. It will carry out tests and research on installations in the field of hydrogen production, its quality and purification, as well as storage and transport.
PKN is also the leader of the Mazovian Hydrogen Valley, which cooperates with 36 entities in the field of production, storage, and use of zero- and low-emission hydrogen, inter alia in transport, power generation, municipal economy and agriculture.