The French multinational Air Liquide has a long-standing leadership trajectory in gases, technologies, and services for both industry and healthcare. Within its portfolio of industrial gases, hydrogen stands out as one of the company’s key commitments, acting as a catalyst in the decarbonization process and energy transition.

Air Liquide has been working with hydrogen for industrial applications for more than six decades and today manages the entire value chain: production, transportation, storage, and distribution. The company supplies liquid hydrogen and gaseous hydrogen cylinders to the chemical, refining, and metallurgical industries, as well as to the transport sector in support of clean mobility.

The multinational sought to optimize hydrogen loading management in its tanker trucks and entrusted Montrel to implement, among other improvements, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology to enable secure vehicle authentication.

The project began at the Puertollano plant. It was later replicated at the Estarreja plant in Portugal and in A Coruña, Spain. The work is being carried out in three phases. Each stage progressively enhances loading management and provides more detailed operational information.

The first phase involved hydrogen loading through Montrel’s control system, installed in 2017. Touchscreen terminals at the loading bays manage the entire process. The system coordinates operations with the plant’s DCS and provides drivers with real-time updates. The touchscreen also generates all required transport documentation.

In the second phase, new operations were added. Before loading, vehicles are automatically identified using microwave TAG devices. Hydrogen is then loaded into the truck, and the data is processed through the touchscreen terminal.

In the final phase, all pre- and post-loading operations continue to be managed through this touchscreen system. It is now fully integrated with the plant’s DCS.

This process has significantly optimized resources in hydrogen loading operations compared to the previous management system used at Air Liquide plants.

Air Liquide again placed its trust in Montrel’s expertise. The company had already relied on Montrel to implement automated loading systems for other gases (N₂, O₂, CO₂, etc.) at its plants in Spain and Portugal.