Haskel Hydrogen Systems, a business of the Precision and Science Technologies Segment at Ingersoll Rand Inc. (NYSE:IR), has announced that, in order to satisfy increasing global demand, it has secured significant multimillion dollar investment to grow the business and fuel international expansion. Over the next 18 months, Haskel will use the investment, from parent company Ingersoll Rand, to strengthen its business in several key areas.
Work is already underway to upscale its global hydrogen refuelling centre for excellence in Sunderland, UK, aiming to treble the capacity of this site by the end of 2022. The investment in infrastructure, equipment and people will strengthen this site and provide a blueprint for further global expansion.
Concurrently, the hydrogen refuelling specialist, will further increase capacity by establishing a second manufacturing facility in Rouen, in northern France. The new plant will become operational in 2022 and scale up to further double manufacturing capacity as part of a wider global expansion programme.
Having secured significant orders globally and with an all time high pipeline of projects, the investment represents strong backing for Haskel from parent company Ingersoll Rand, which is funding the development of the business and backing the wider hydrogen market.
Building on its work to date, Haskel will also use part of the investment to develop larger compression systems capable of driving the next generation of refuelling systems for larger applications or loads. This will be a joint new product development (NPD) project with Gardner Denver, also part of the Ingersoll Rand Group, for both Mobility and Power-to-X applications.
Commenting on the investment, Haskel’s Global Managing Director, Stephen Learney, said: “As the world takes action to reduce emissions and address climate change, hydrogen has an increasingly important role to play in the energy transition. We are pleased to announce this investment from Ingersoll Rand, which demonstrates a commitment to further strengthen the development of our hydrogen refuelling business, infrastructure, equipment and people to meet increasing global market demand.
“Building on the success of our range of modular refuelling stations, by collaborating with other Ingersoll Rand businesses and combining our compression expertise we are able to continue to invest in developing our product offering and evolve to meet the needs of the emerging hydrogen market.”
In addition to the employment opportunities created by the new facility in France, the investment Haskel has received will help to create further sustainable jobs in the north-east of England as the company continues with its recruitment drive.