Hydrogen Transport Economy in the North Sea Region 2

The project

In transport, 94% of primary energy is still based on oil. Alternative transport solutions, such as those based on hydrogen, will play a key role in achieving the EU’s energy and climate change objectives. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) have a huge potential due to the large number of small and medium-sized cities in the North Sea region, as they have a longer range than battery-powered electric vehicles. However, there is currently no significant market uptake for FCEVs, due to the following factors:

• High costs for FCEVs, especially for fleet operators with vans
• lack of demand for the infrastructure necessary to refuel vehicles
• High hydrogen prices due to inefficient hydrogen production, storage and distribution

The project addresses this situation by developing a sustainable strategy for the NSR. The strategy aims to promote the FCEV market. For this purpose, the results from different project components will be developed into a strategy. The project components provide insights into the more cost-effective production and storage of green hydrogen and the cost-efficient use of hydrogen in energy supply and transport.  With the implementation of a multitude of local initiatives of the transnational project partners a practical relevance of the elaborated results can be guaranteed. The initiatives include:

• Vehicle trials to improve operational efficiency
• Low-carbon hydrogen production, storage and distribution demonstrators
• Communication & marketing measures
• App development to improve the usability of FCEV

To this end, the project brings together eight organisations with a wide range of experience to work together on strategy development and local initiatives in the NSR. This approach will promote the use of FCEV in the NSR and reduce the cost of hydrogen vehicles.

Goals

The main objective of the HyTrEc 2 project is to create conditions under which the FCEV market can develop and the North Sea region can evolve to become a centre of excellence for fuel cells and range extenders. 

aconium responsibilities

aconium supports the HyTrEc2 partnership in project management and the development of marketing measures. This includes the lead coordination of the hydrogen filling station app development H2live.