Worthington Enterprises and Stokota are working on delivering their first co-produced systems – two 20-foot containers for transporting hydrogen at 380 bar – later this year.
The collaboration benefits from benign geography, given Stokota has two facilities in Poland near Worthington’s plant in Słupsk.
For over a decade, Worthington Enterprises has pursued a business strategy to offer the clean-fuel mobility market the capacity needed for hydrogen and CNG onboard fuelling systems as wells as the necessary storage, transport, and refuelling infrastructure.
Stokota, a leader in the production of specialised tank vehicles for fuel transport, sees hydrogen transport as the next step in expanding the company’s core competence, and two years ago began developing transport solutions for compressed hydrogen.
By teaming up, the two companies have matched production strengths in the design and assembly of hydrogen transport and storage systems.
Wim De Gendt, CEO Stokata, said, “Our own strengths in building road-ready, certified tank vehicles coupled with Worthington’s knowhow in designing and producing composite high-pressure cylinders and gas-street components will result in a high-end product – a container for the transportation of compressed hydrogen.”
Ekaterina Levitskaia, Product Manager Gas Containment Systems at Worthington Enterprises, said it was drawn to Stokota’s quality and safety record in fuel transport solutions and it was convinced a long-term collaboration would bring many mutual benefits and allow both companies to focus on their strengths.
She said, “Our experience in building compressed H2 cylinders and our multi-generational approach to product research and development will contribute to a healthy collaboration for years to come.”
Using hydrogen technologies to decarbonise the mobility sector requires large-scale modifications to vehicle manufacturing and fuelling infrastructure.
Collaboration can help the transformation to clean mobility achieve sufficient velocity; however, this requires not just heavy capital investment, but also a shift in mindset.
