Delfzijl hydrogen hub takes shape: 4,000 kilos a day, ready for the road

In Delfzijl the drill is going into the ground for a link in the chain that shows up on no map, yet is exactly what makes the northern Dutch hydrogen network work: a filling station where green hydrogen is loaded into tube trailers. The installation is due to run by the end of 2026.

From factory pipe to trailer

Officially the project is the HyPlanet H2 Trailer Fill Station; locally everyone calls it the H2 Hub Delfzijl. The principle is straightforward. Hydrogen already produced in the region, partly by chemical company Nobian as a by-product of chlorine production, is purified on site to fuel quality and compressed to transport pressure. It then goes into tube trailers that carry the gas by road to customers.

The station starts at around 2,000 kilos of hydrogen per day and can grow to 4,000. For perspective: a heavy hydrogen truck takes roughly thirty to forty kilos per fill.

Why Delfzijl

The location is no accident. Delfzijl sits inside a complete chemical cluster that both produces and uses hydrogen, hosted by port authority Groningen Seaports. The area is also the heart of HEAVENN, the European-recognised Hydrogen Valley of the northern Netherlands, which ties production, infrastructure, transport and offtake together.

That hydrogen is already released here as a by-product is an added advantage. Gas that used to go to waste now gets a purpose as clean fuel. Making the most of what is already there suits an energy transition that asks a lot of raw materials on every front.

Putting wheels under it

A filling station is only useful if there is something to fill. That is the next step: enough tube trailers and tractor units on the road to deliver hydrogen to refuelling stations, construction sites and factories. Green Planet has bought three hydrogen trailers for the job and is building up its fleet with partners including MAN, Roordink and Wierda Bedrijfswagens.

Road distribution has a practical advantage: a trailer can reach any place where demand appears, including sites with no pipeline yet and areas where the electricity grid is already at capacity. Hydrogen can therefore reach new locations under its own steam while fixed infrastructure expands step by step.

Who is building and who is funding

A broad group stands behind the station:

• Initiators: Green Planet and HyPlanet, with Green Edge as construction partner
• Suppliers: On2Quest, Adicomp, Neuman & Esser, Kampen Industrial Care, Soluforce, MAN, Roordink and Wierda Bedrijfswagens
• Funding: Clean Hydrogen Partnership (EU), New Energy Coalition, ABN AMRO, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Waddenfonds and the National Programme Groningen

Edward Doorten, initiator on behalf of Green Planet and HyPlanet, points to the wider significance. In his view hydrogen helps Europe become more energy independent, needs few rare metals and delivers cleaner air.

What it means for hydrogen drivers

At the end of 2025 the Netherlands counted just over twenty public hydrogen refuelling stations, and the number keeps growing. The national Hydrogen in Mobility subsidy scheme added hundreds of hydrogen vehicles and further stations, with an emphasis on heavy road transport. For those stations, supply is the quiet precondition: without trailers arriving daily, the pump stands idle.

A hub like the one in Delfzijl fills exactly that gap. It turns regionally produced hydrogen into deliverable loads, clearing the way for more hydrogen vehicles in the northern Netherlands and beyond.

Timeline

Ground was broken in February 2026. The installation is set to be commissioned by the end of 2026, with an official opening in 2027. We are following the build with interest: this is the kind of invisible infrastructure that hydrogen mobility ultimately runs on.

Sources

• RTV Noord, Delfzijl krijgt vulstation voor waterstof, nog vrachtwagens nodig om die schone brandstof op de juiste plekken te krijgen, 18 August 2026
• MobilityEnergy.com, Bouw HyPlanet trailer-waterstofstation Delfzijl van start, 12 February 2026
• New Energy Coalition, Green Planet en HyPlanet zetten volgende stap naar H2 Trailer Fill Station in Delfzijl, 13 March 2026
• HEAVENN, Next step for H2 Trailer Fill Station in Delfzijl
• Green Planet, De H2 Hub in Delfzijl: een duurzame waterstofrevolutie
• Nieuwsblad Transport, Bouw waterstofvulstation in Delfzijl van start, 16 February 2026
• Nederland Elektrisch, SWIM subsidy delivers 4 new hydrogen stations and 355 hydrogen-electric vehicles