An explosion proof mobile phone for energy and gas infrastructure in Germany will end up in two very different places: floating LNG terminals that have been built since 2022, and an older, denser network of compressor stations, storage caverns and biogas plants that is now being asked to carry hydrogen as well. This page is for the HSE managers, terminal operators and maintenance planners who have to decide what is allowed past the gate, and it covers what the IS-04Z1 is designed for ahead of its Q4 2026 launch. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · ATEX programme in progress
Deutsche Energy Terminal is a state-owned company that runs floating storage and regasification units at Wilhelmshaven, where there are two terminals, and at Brunsbüttel, with a further terminal at Stade in development. These are ships moored at jetties, so a terminal has three zones of control: the vessel, the jetty and the onshore send-out and metering plant. Behind them sits the established grid of transmission operators and cavern storage, and around it the biogas plants spread across farming country.
The zone decides whether a device may be carried. After that the site decides how long it lasts, and these gas sites are mostly outdoors, exposed and thinly staffed.
LNG and grid gas are methane, which sits in gas group IIA, while hydrogen is group IIC. The gas marking target for the IS-04Z1 is II 2 G Ex ib IIC T4, so a single handset is designed for a jetty, a compressor yard and an electrolyser hall.
Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel are exposed estuary sites, where spray and rain are the normal working day. IP68 sealing is aimed at water and dirt ingress, and you should still ask for the materials list before specifying it for permanent marine exposure.
On the ship itself, equipment rules come from the flag state and classification society rather than from ATEX alone. Ask the terminal operator which regime applies at each point of the route before assuming one handset covers both.
A biogas visit or a storage-site call-out is often one technician, so 4G LTE, a 4,000 mAh battery and a coordinate from four-constellation GNSS matter more than any single feature.
Android Enterprise management from an existing MDM console lets a transmission or biogas operator enrol a mixed fleet and push the same inspection forms to every unit.
A cargo transfer runs to a ship and shore safety checklist and a set of people on each side. The terminal operator's team needs voice, a photograph record and the checklist on one device while standing on the jetty.
Rounds at a compressor station or cavern site follow set routes with readings at each machine. A handset replaces the paper round sheet, reports a fault to the control room and records its position.
New electrolyser and pipeline sections are classified for a different gas group from the old plant. Commissioning crews, then single-technician service visits to biogas plants, need clear instructions on what a handset may be used for in each area.
The legal basis is the same as elsewhere in Germany: ATEX 2014/34/EU for the product, and BetrSichV with TRBS 2152 for the operator, who records zones and equipment selection in the Explosionsschutzdokument. Gas transmission and distribution operators also work to the technical rules of the gas industry body DVGW, and a new hydrogen section means the zone classification is rewritten, not copied from the natural gas version.
We have not verified any individual operator's supplier registration, so we do not describe one. Ask the operator's procurement and HSE teams for their contractor and equipment approval requirements, and ask the terminal operator which regime applies on the vessel.
No. It is pre-launch, and ATEX and IECEx certification are in progress ahead of the Q4 2026 launch. Until a certificate exists it should not be carried into a classified area.
The terminals run by Deutsche Energy Terminal at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel use floating storage and regasification units moored at jetties, with a pipeline connection to the onshore grid. Stade is also planned around an FSRU.
Hydrogen is gas group IIC, which is more demanding than the IIA that natural gas falls in. A handset intended for both has to carry a group IIC marking, and the IS-04Z1 is being certified to Ex ib IIC T4.
The product requirements are the same, but the zones and processes differ. Biogas areas are typically smaller and more spread out, and the operator's Explosionsschutzdokument for the plant defines what applies.
Tell us the site, the zone and gas group, and roughly how many handsets. The SAMS team replies by email with the datasheet and the certification schedule for Germany. The IS-04Z1 is pre-launch and certification is in progress, so there is no list price yet; indicative pricing is issued in writing against a stated quantity and site.
Tell us the zone, gas group and operator. We will send the datasheet and the certification schedule for your market.
