Research Touts Hydrogen Energy's Potential to Reduce Oil Use in European Road Transport

February 26, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

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Ministers from the European Union (EU) member states are expected to approve a European Commission (EC) proposal for a new €940 public/private research partnership (joint technology initiative) to develop fuel cell and hydrogen fuel technology when they meet on Feb. 25.

This industry-led integrated programme of research, technology development and demonstration activities will receive €470 million of funding from the EU's research programme over the next six years, an amount to be matched by the private sector.

At the same meeting, ministers will discuss Europe's Strategic Energy Technology Plan, which points to this joint technology initiative as an example of how to develop new energy technologies.

The meeting follows publication of a report on the HyWays project, a study funded by the EU's research programme that found that introducing hydrogen into the energy system would reduce total oil consumption in the road transport sector by 40% between now and 2050.

The report concluded that, by taking a leading position in the worldwide market for hydrogen technologies, Europe can open new economic opportunities and strengthen its competitiveness.

But the report also cautioned that the transition won't happen automatically. Substantial barriers, ranging from economic and technological to institutional, have to be overcome first, and action must be taken as soon as possible.

The HyWays project brought together industry, research institutions and government agencies from 10 European countries. Following a series of more than 50 workshops, the project produced a roadmap to analyse the potential impacts on the EU economy, society and environment from large-scale introduction of hydrogen.

The roadmap also created an action plan detailing what needs to be done to move towards greater use of hydrogen. The roadmap was based on country-specific analyses of the situation in Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and the U.K.

The EC believes that hydrogen is one of the most realistic options for environmental and economic sustainability in the transport sector - in particular, passenger transport, light-duty vehicles and city buses. However, its introduction requires gradual changes throughout the entire energy system and thus careful planning at this early stage.

The transitional period offers Europe the opportunity to take the lead in developing hydrogen and fuel cell technology, and its applications in transport and energy supply. The challenges are high and the right steps have to be taken quickly if Europe is to enter the market in time.

The costs of hydrogen end-use applications, especially for road transport, need to be reduced considerably to become competitive. At the same time, deployment support schemes for hydrogen end-use technologies and infrastructure build-up are required.

The study compared the costs for hydrogen production and distribution, plus for the construction of hydrogen-powered vehicles, on the one hand, with the savings to be gained from replacing conventional fuel and conventional vehicles over time, on the other hand. The project's high-quality simulations predicted that the break-even point would likely be reached between 2025 and 2035.

The HyWays roadmap estimates that in 2030 there will be 16 million hydrogen cars, and the total cumulative investment for infrastructure build-up will amount to €60 billion.

The study examined the different ways in which hydrogen can be produced and found differing attitudes across the EU. The countries represented in the study chose the production of hydrogen from natural gas, biomass and wind energy. Nuclear energy was seen as an option in France, Finland, Spain, Poland and the U.K., but the use of coal was excluded in Finland, France and Norway.

The report showed that the production of hydrogen from fossil fuels using carbon capture and storage could make a significant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions.

Furthermore, the introduction of hydrogen into the energy system offers the opportunity to increase the ratio of renewable energy to fossil fuel energy and to help the large-scale introduction of intermittent resources, such as wind energy through its use as a temporary energy storage option.

For more information, see:

• EU web site on HyWays
• IP/07/1468 and MEMO/07/404, press releases on the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative
• IP/07/1750, information on the Strategic Energy Technology Plan

Source: European Commission.