HyKit launches a mobile hydrogen bowser for the construction site

Hydrogen on the construction site has long run into one main obstacle: not the machines, but the refuelling. The launch of the MHR-X75, a mobile hydrogen bowser from UK-based HyKit, changes that. The unit brings fast, reliable hydrogen straight to where the equipment is working.

A mobile tank unit for hydrogen

Diesel has arrived on site by bowser — a mobile fuel tank — for fifty years. HyKit translates that familiar principle to hydrogen. The MHR-X75 stores the fuel in pressurised tanks inside a single compact, trailer-mounted unit that can be moved around site using standard equipment such as a material handler.

The figures: the unit carries 75 kilograms of hydrogen at 350 bar, with a refuelling turnaround of around 10 to 15 minutes. It can serve up to seven vehicles, generators or machines in succession, without needing a fixed refuelling station. According to HyKit, hydrogen adoption is held back not by technology but by infrastructure — and that is exactly what this mobile solution addresses.

Part of a complete chain

HyKit is a joint venture between investor HYCAP, the HydraB Group and construction equipment maker JCB. Behind the scenes, entrepreneur Jo Bamford is building a full hydrogen chain: from green hydrogen production, through transport, to the mobile refuelling solution. JCB itself developed a hydrogen combustion engine that works much like a diesel engine, making it easier to convert existing machine designs.

At the Bicester factory, the units are largely built in a clean room. Hydrogen molecules are so small they can escape through the tiniest gap, so every part is inspected down to micron scale. The factory has capacity for around 500 units a year, with an initial target of 200.

"Shipping sunlight"

Bamford looks beyond the construction site. He points out that the electricity grid in many countries is congested — and that lead times for a crucial component like a turbine now run into years. Alongside the grid there are gas pipelines and fuel transport: three energy networks that, in his view, all need to keep working.

To move green hydrogen around the world, he is betting on green ammonia — made up of hydrogen and nitrogen. He aptly calls this "shipping sunlight": in sun-rich regions such as Oman, cheap solar energy is converted into ammonia that can then be transported. His project there involves four gigawatts of green ammonia under development. More efficient electrolysers — rising from 55 to 85 percent — should bring the cost down further.

Building demand with buses and pipes

A reliable chain also needs steady demand. That is why Bamford focuses partly on buses: they last fifteen years and can refuel at one location throughout that time. A hydrogen production facility such as the one in Bradford costs around £100 million, delivers 35 megawatts and can supply some 700 buses.

Bamford's message is that the whole system has to work: energy, fuel and infrastructure together, with the aim of making refuelling as effortless as it is today. Alongside battery-electric equipment, a second, fully fledged route toward zero-emission construction is taking shape.

Sources

• The Construction Index — Hydrogen bowsers and shipping sunlight (June 2026)
• JCB — HYKIT launches fully mobile hydrogen refueller MHR-X75
• Fuel Cells Works — HYKIT Mobile Hydrogen Refueller MHR-X75
• Ryze Power / IVT International — HYKIT joint venture and JCB Hydromax