Hydrogen Hits the Roads

33 hydrogen-fuelled cars are to be used for official duties by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The unnamed cars will run 115- or 100-kilowatt PEM fuel cells with a fuel economy of 23 kilometres per litre of hydrogen and a top speed of 160 kph/99 mph. This is the latest in a run of high profile South Korean fuel cell developments, including the recent completion of POSCO Power’s stack manufacturing plant, the unveiling of Hyundai’s Blue 2 concept car at the Seoul Motor Show and plans for at least two fuel cell power plants. Source: Fuel Cell Today  

The European Hydrogen Association in collaboration with The Regions and Municipalities Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, HyRaMP has been present with an exhibition booth at this year’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Fair in Hannover taking place from April 4-8.

In addition to the exhibition the has facilitated each day presentations and discussions within the Fair’s Public Forum and Technical Forums.

Presentations were made which give participants an insight on EHA and its activities, while providing an introduction to each of the European funded projects EHA is partner in (HyGuide, HyFACTS, HyPROFESSIONALS, SHEL, HyLIFT-DEMO).

During this year’s European Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels The EHA and HyRaMP collaboratively held the “Hop on a CHIC Bus!” Event.

During the EU Sustainable Energy Week a EHA, HyRaMP, Fuel Cell Europe, and New IG are collaboratively holding the public workshop “Fuel cells and hydrogen within the European Initiative on Smart Cities.”  at the Palais des Académies, Rue Ducale 1, Brussels 1000.

During the EU Sustainable Energy Week a EHA, HyRaMP, Fuel Cell Europe, and New IG collaboratively held the public workshop “Fuel cells and hydrogen within the European Initiative on Smart Cities.” at the Palais des Académies in Brussels.

Sofia 13-15/04/2011: Focus on increasing energy efficiency and utilizing the potential of renewable energy sources, especially for the countries of South-Eastern Europe that are challenged with numerous economic and environmental problems caused by their inefficient and polluting energy systems, the 7th edition of the International Congress and Exhibition on Energy Efficiency and Renewables for South East Europe will showcase again the latest equipment, technology and services from the energy sector and will attract the public and business attention to the benefits of renewable energy use and the different means for energy saving. The event is supported by the Ministry of Environment and Water, Serbian Energy Efficiency Agency, Bulgarian Energy Efficiency Agency, Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) and European Technology Platform ‘Renewable Heating & Cooling’ (RHC). For more information see:  link

Held during the 2011 EU Sustainable Energy Week on the dates April 12, 13, and 14, “Hop on a Session in a CHIC bus!” is a collaborative event hosted by EHA and HyRaMP which will give participants a chance to change the conference room atmosphere and take part in a series of seminars from within the comfort of one of the 26 Fuel Cell Hydrogen (FCH) Buses of the EU funded CHIC (Clean Hydrogen In European Cities) project.

The Bus will be located right outside the doors of the European Commission Berlaymont building in the center of Brussels (within the Berlaymont esplanade). The FCH bus will be open for visitors all day from 9:30-13:00 and 14:00-17:00. From 13:00 until 13:30 on April 12 and 14 and from 13:30 until 14:00 April 13 participants will have the ability to participate in a seminar which will demonstrate the progress in the use of hydrogen and fuel cells as part of Europe’s sustainable energy and transport system.

As EU Member States are slowly warming up to  establishing  taxes on carbon,  EU Tax Commissioner on April 13 outlined plans for a draft of a new Directive. The carbon tax draft is based on fuel energy intensity rather than volume and will exempt fuels made from biomass and electricity, already taxed under the ETS regime. The revised Energy Taxation Directive will allow Member States to make the best possible use of taxation and proposes splitting the minimum tax rate into two parts: One would be based on CO2 emissions of the energy product and would be fixed at €20 per tonne of CO2. The other one would be based on energy content, i.e. on the actual energy that a product generates measured in Gigajoules (GJ). The minimum tax rate would be fixed at €9.6/GJ for motor fuels, and €0.15/GJ for heating fuels. This will apply to all fuels used for transport and heating. This proposal will favour renewable energy sources and encourage the consumption of energy sources emitting less CO2. At the moment, the most polluting energy sources are, paradoxically, the least taxed. On the contrary, biofuels are amongst the most heavily taxed energy sources in spite of EU’s [...]

The new White Paper published by the European Commission “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system” aims to increase mobility and further integrate the EU’s transport networks – while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the bloc’s dependence on imported oil. Hydrogen is reinforced as one of the solutions to achieve clean transport within urban areas within the text of the document stating, ”The use of electric, hydrogen and hybrid technologies would not only reduce air emissions, but also noise, allowing a greater portion of freighttransport within the urban areas to take place at night time.” page 8 paragraph 33 The White paper also defines measures to encourage major infrastructure investments and change the way freight moves and people travel would boost economic competitiveness and create jobs. The plan – with goals to be met by 2050 – focuses on travel within cities and between cities, and on long distance journeys. It includes calls for: cities to completely phase out petrol cars shifting to rail or water 50% of all passenger and freight road transport currently making intercity journeys of more than 300km airlines to increase their use of sustainable low-carbon fuels to 40% [...]

The project FC-HyGuide aims to develop a Guidance Document for LCA studies on hydrogen production and fuel cell technologies. It is financed by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), a public private partnership supporting research, technological development and demonstration activities in fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies in Europe.

After several months of project work, a Technical Expert Workshop (held mid February 2011 in Brussels) and the revision of the draft Guidance Document the project team now wants to invite Stakeholders and interested people to critically comment on the advanced Guidance Document for:

-       hydrogen production
-       fuel cell technologies

This public consultation will be carried out from April 1 2011 until April 30 2011. Two documents (one for hydrogen production and one for fuel cell technologies). Further information may be found on the project website : www.fc-hyguide.eu