Milestone achieved on road to world's first hydrogen economy

05-Mar-2001

One of the initial milestones in creating the world’s first hydrogen economy was achieved today when Iceland unveiled plans for a fleet of hydrogen powered fuel cell buses and a hydrogen filling station, which will provide the first real-time demonstration of the country’s ambitions.

The seven-million-Euro Ecological City Transport System (ECTOS) project is being co-ordinated by the consortium Icelandic New Energy Ltd (INE), comprising Shell Hydrogen, DaimlerChrysler, Norsk Hydro and Vistorka*. The consortium was established two years ago to help investigate the potential for replacing the use of fossil fuels in Iceland with hydrogen.

ECTOS is a combined demonstration and research project looking at the infrastructure and operation of hydrogen fuel cell buses. The project will build a hydrogen refilling station on a new Shell retail site in Reykjavik, with on site production of hydrogen by electrolysis using renewable power. This will be used to fuel three fuel cell buses in the Reykjavik Municipal Bus Corporation’s normal service.

The first two years of the four-year project will be used for environmental research, building the refilling station, and preparing for bus arrival. The buses will then be operated for two years on a standard tour within Reykjavik to face day-to-day operating conditions.

“Iceland is already a world-leader in using renewable energy, both hydroelectric and geothermal, and the ECTOS project is the first important step in our progress towards becoming the world´s first hydrogen economy,” said Thorsteinn Sijfusson, chairman of the INE board of directors.

The project is supported by the European Commission. Other participants include the University of Iceland, Reykjavik Municipal Bus Corporation, the Technological Institute of Iceland, the Shell company in Iceland Skeljungur and Vinnova, a Swedish Institute.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/1661/milestone-achieved-on-road-to-world-s-first-hydrogen-economy.html