Hydrogen Hits the Roads

Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH opened their first demonstration hydrogen station on June 20 2011  in Germany . It is located on the premises of Shell’s Sachsendamm service station in Berlin. The installation is equipped with innovative refuelling technology from Linde. The hydrogen to be dispensed there comes from a Linde pilot plant in Leuna which uses crude glycerol as feedstock.

The demonstration station is part of Shell’s research and development programme for hydrogen technology and was established within the scope of the “Clean Energy Partnership” (CEP). The objective is to evaluate the technology and learn valuable lessons about costs, consumer behaviour, how to store hydrogen safely and dispense it efficiently to different vehicles – such as passenger cars and buses.

The demonstration station in Berlin has the capacity to fill about 250 hydrogen-fuelled vehicles per day. However, the service station will predominantly be used for demonstration and research purposes, and for the time being an average of about 20 vehicles are to be filled there per day.

On July 19th, DG Research and Development of the European Commission has announced the adoption of the 2012 Work Programme and on July 20th formally launched the calls for proposals for research and innovation projects under the FP7 that is worth €7 billion. This announcement marks the biggest ever calls for proposals that is up by 9% from the previous year with a stronger focus on innovation and on tackling the challenges of our era with an eye on climate change, energy and resource efficiency.

The six activities covered under Sustainable Surface Transport are:
1. The greening of surface transport
2. Encouraging modal shift and decongesting transport corridors (co-modality)
3. Ensuring sustainable urban mobility
4. Improving safety and security
5. Strengthening competitiveness
6. Cross-cutting actions for implementing the sub-theme.

Nedstack PEM fuel cells will generate electricity for Solvay’s chlorine plant in Lillo (near Antwerp). This PEM Power Plant, with a 1 MW capacity delivered by 12,600 fuel cell stacks, is the largest of this type in the world. The PEM Power Plant converts hydrogen, a by-product in the chlorine industry, into electricity and heat.

This application is part of the European funded ”Hydrogen Region Flanders-South Netherlands”  project coordinated by WaterstofNet. The project was approved within the INTERREG IV Programme (a European program for cooperation) with a budget of 14 million euros.

On 27th July 2011  the 1 MW PEM Power Plant was transported by low loader truck from Arnhem to Antwerp. It will be operational by September of this year.

The French Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Platform General Assembly on June 21st announced evolution of the Platform. HyPaC and the “Association Française de l’Hydrogène” will join their efforts to accelerate hydrogen and fuel cell technologies’ deployment in France.

On July 4th 2011 the HyLIFT-DEMO project held its second project meeting in Herning, Denmark. During the meeting project partners were able to exchange actions and future developments. The hosts, H2 Logic, gave a tour of their premises and presented the hydrogen fuel cell forklift truck prototype to be deployed with the project demonstration sites.

The HyLIFT-DEMO project will conduct a large scale demonstration of Fuel Cell Hydrogen (FCH) powered FLTs (Fork Lift Trucks), while building the business case to enable following deployment and introduction by 2013. This first small scale series production of FLT will seek to validate the value proposition and commercial and environmental targets by retrieving the data provided by the demonstration operation.

The Hidromobil, a fuel cell racing event in Turkey, took place on 11th-15th July in Izmir. Heliocentris supported more than 20 teams, which tried to be the fastest in completing 20 rounds on the race track. The fastest fuel cell powered cars reached 75 km/h. A team participating for the first time reached 4th place  using the new Nexa 1200 Fuel Cell System from Heliocentris. The Hydrogen Network Ruhr in Germany organized a H2 go-kart race in cooperation with regional companies challenging the skills of young apprentices in the field of mechatronics, industrial mechanics and energy electronics. The teams had to retrofit electric karts equipping them with Nexa 1200 fuel cell systems from Heliocentris. 7 teams competed 1500 visitors watched the race Carts reached speeds of up to 52 km/h The race was also meant to communicate the advantages of fuel cell technology to the general public. Most visitors were astounded by the low noise emission of the karts.    

The Hydrogen Network Ruhr in Germany organized a H2 go-kart race in cooperation with regional companies challenging the skills of young apprentices in the field of mechatronics, industrial mechanics and energy electronics. The teams had to retrofit electric karts equipping them with Nexa 1200 fuel cell systems from Heliocentris. 7 teams competed 1500 visitors watched the race Carts reached speeds of up to 52 km/h The race was also meant to communicate the advantages of fuel cell technology to the general public. Most visitors were astounded by the low noise emission of the karts. Source: Heliocentris  

The FC-HyGuide project, funded by the European Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) is coordinating two training courses on the 1st and 29th of September based on the development of a guidance document and related training materials for LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) studies on fuel cells and hydrogen production.

HyFACTS aims to develop and initiate dissemination of training material for Regulators and Public Safety Officials. An online survey has been created which participants may review and submit the appropriate data on the authorization procedures and training of officials in your designated country or region.

Ballard Power Systems  announced on July 19th 2011, a purchase order commitment from Plug Power Inc. for a minimum 3,250 fuel cell stacks over the next 18-month period, for use in the material handling market.