Commission wants renewed focus on hydrogen vehicles

The European Commission will next month (10 October) turn the spotlight on hydrogen-powered cars, in its latest effort to find a way of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from vehicles.

It will put forward two proposals, for European-wide hydrogen vehicle standards and a multi-million euro hydrogen research project, in response to European fears about dependency on oil and global warming. Road transport is thought to account for one-fifth of CO2 emissions in the EU, while more than two-thirds of oil imports are used to fuel vehicles.

Hydrogen supporters say that it is a clean, versatile and widely available element that could be used to tackle both problems. Critics, however, point out that hydrogen is clean only if produced by a low-emission energy source and that hydrogen filling- stations and fuel cells (batteries used to convert hydrogen to electricity) are prohibitively expensive.

"We believe hydrogen could be a good and viable alternative [to traditional fuels]," said a Commission official. "But if we want to go ahead with hydrogen fuels, we need a strong framework."

The Commission hopes that a proposed Joint Technology Initiative for research, a forum bringing together industry, EU institutions and interest groups, will come up with ways of reducing the cost of hydrogen-based transport and promote the development of clean hydrogen conversion. In next month’s proposal, the Commission will ask member states to match its contribution of €470 million for research on hydrogen over the next six years.

The regulation aims to make it easier to sell hydrogen vehicles on the single market by setting EU-wide requirements for vehicle systems and components, along with installation and public safety standards.

The Commission said in 2001 that hydrogen was a promising alternative transport fuel, along with biofuels. Since then EU research money has been used to develop hydrogen-powered buses in nine EU cities.

But until now, public and political attention has focused mainly on biofuels, as a cheaper and simpler way to reduce dependency on oil imports and possibly cut CO2 emissions.

EU governments in March agreed to raise the use of biofuel to 10% of road transport fuel by 2020. But the target has since come under attack for ignoring the potential environmental and social risks of biofuels.

In January, the Commission proposed legislation to oblige fuelmakers to cut lifecycle CO2 emissions by 10% by 2020, while a proposal setting a binding CO2 emission limit for new cars on the EU market is expected on 19 December.

The two hydrogen proposals might offer an alternative way of hitting those targets, and sidestepping the criticism directed at biofuel.

The European Commission will next month (10 October) turn the spotlight on hydrogen-powered cars, in its latest effort to find a way of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from vehicles.