Peninsular Malaysia's first hydrogen fuel station is coming; UMW, Petronas, and more sign MoU

UMW, together with NanoMalaysia Berhad (NMB), Petronas, and the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Corporation (MGTC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a Mobile Hydrogen Refueling Station project.

The station will be situated at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, and will be the first of its kind in Peninsular Malaysia. Currently, the only hydrogen stations available are in Sarawak, including one multi-fuel service station.

This collaborative project is also supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI), as part of the Hydrogen Economy and Technology Roadmap (HETR).

Under this collaboration, Petronas will supply and provide the mobile hydrogen filling facilities along with its operation and maintenance, apart from producing green hydrogen. NMB will complement the project with its own technologies, while UMW will fleet the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.

Also read: Sarawak drives lead of hydrogen cars; receives 5 units of Toyota Mirai FCEV from UMWT

Hydrogen-fueled cars like the Toyota Mirai are also known as fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV). It's an electric vehicle but instead of carrying a big battery, it makes its own electricity on the move by mixing hydrogen with oxygen in the fuel cells.

The benefits of FCEVs are long range and fast refueling, but the downside is high fuel cost (hydrogen is a lot more expensive than electricity). Also, all current FCEVs are based on gaseous hydrogen technology, which cannot support consecutive refueling of multiple cars. However, Toyota is trialing a new liquid hydrogen technology, which allows just that, in grueling motorsports condition.

Also read: Back from the dead, this Toyota GR Corolla made history as world's first liquid hydrogen racer to complete an endurance race