How Everfuel Enables Safe and Efficient Hydrogen Production with Swagelok
Everfuel owns and operates green hydrogen infrastructure, helping connect renewable energy sources, industrial applications, and mobility solutions across the hydrogen value chain. In this video, learn how Everfuel is developing one of Europe’s largest electrolyzer facilities and working with Swagelok to support safe, efficient hydrogen production. Faced with the challenges of containing hydrogen at high pressures, Everfuel relies on Swagelok expertise, leak-tight fluid system solutions, and FK fittings designed for hydrogen service. Through close collaboration, the companies have optimized system design, reduced maintenance requirements, enhanced safety, and supported long-term operational efficiency, helping advance the adoption of clean hydrogen technologies and a more sustainable energy future.
Video Transcript
So, in Everfuel, we are building one of Europe’s largest electrolyzer facilities—or even a Power-to-X facility. This is the cornerstone of the business within Everfuel. The purpose of the site is to prove that we can use renewable energy, when it is available from solar and wind, to produce hydrogen, store it, and use it both for supplying fuel into the neighboring facility—the Crossbridge refinery, where they use that hydrogen to make the traditional fuels they sell greener and better—and to use that hydrogen in our own distribution and for mobility fleets through our hydrogen stations or industrial customers, where we can offset some fossil fuel-containing hydrogen.
Containing hydrogen is a challenge because hydrogen is the smallest molecule in the universe. You have issues with embrittlement, and hydrogen embrittlement is really critical in all hydrogen applications. Hydrogen embrittlement is basically the fact that these small hydrogen molecules want to attack small cracks in the surface of the material. It is sometimes worse in harder steel materials. Therefore, you need to think very hard about the tube spec you use. In addition, we also use hydrogen at a very high pressure, which makes it even more difficult.
We started iterating from a blank piece of paper, so we were very reliant on Peter and his team from Swagelok to find the right solutions. We helped Everfuel compare different technologies to contain the hydrogen. We looked at the safety, the maintenance, the installation cost, and the cost for the overall project. By finding the right level in these different areas, Everfuel could make the correct decision about what was best for them without compromising safety.
No matter if you are working with hydrogen production, electrolyzers, hydrogen storage, or even workshop facilities, keeping leak-tight systems is really the main goal. The challenging part about dealing with hydrogen as a molecule is that, no matter where you put it, it just wants to get out.
The FK fitting is designed for hydrogen service. In the beginning of our conversations with Everfuel, we highlighted the advantages of FK versus cone and thread. If you compare it to cone and thread, you will see a lot less maintenance, easier installation, and the fact that we have the 12% nickel content in our components really helps us. In general, it is really great to have FK installed instead of cone and thread.
We have chosen to go with FK fittings over cone and thread in order to have the safest possible solution and the solution with the lowest possible maintenance, thereby increasing both safety and our OPEX.
We have relied quite a lot on our relationship with Swagelok from the start. We have had an open discussion on design, technical aspects, what is good, what is bad, and also on price and contract issues. That is otherwise difficult. It is a very dedicated team with a professional approach, so we have received very good feedback and inspiration right from the start. Communication has been easy, and we understand each other very well, so I see a lot of future projects together here.
