July 2002 - Nr. 7
Hydrogen Car-Fuelling
Pilot Project Announced
TWIG - Several German auto manufacturers, among them DaimlerChrysler, BMW and Opel (GM), in cooperation with the German federal transport ministry, plan to make environmentally friendly hydrogen the car fuel of the future. On Tuesday (June 4), industry and government representatives met in Berlin to sign on for a joint project designed to prove the viability of hydrogen as an everyday car fuel and to test customer acceptance of new tanking options that would be used in such a system. Impetus for the five-year Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) was the increase in traffic, growing reliance upon fuels and resultant increase in global carbon dioxide emissions, as well as diminishing or threatened oil and gas supplies, which federal transportation minister Kurt Bodewig said "require an innovative solution to ensure future mobility."
He and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s minister of state Hans Martin Bury believe CEP may offer part of a solution. The project was developed by VES, an initiative forged by the German automobile and energy industries, which is supported by the German government. Its goal was to find a renewable energy source that can markedly reduce carbon dioxide emissions along the entire energy consumption chain and can be used in many different vehicle propulsion systems. In June 2001, VES decided that hydrogen offered the best long-term potential.
The CEP pilot project calls for a liquid hydrogen fuelling station to open in Berlin in 2003 that would provide the infrastructure necessary to make and distribute hydrogen to a fleet of 30 modified-engine vehicles and to test these vehicles under everyday conditions. Participating companies include the German car companies named above as well as leading German gas station chain Aral, Berlin’s traffic management agency BVG, and industrial firms MAN and Linde. Bodewig encouraged other European and international companies to join the project, which should also serve as a nexus for future German and international projects of a similar nature. As part of the ruling SPD/Green coalition’s sustainability strategy, several hydrogen-powered bus projects are already receiving government support. Bury said his hope is that the CEP project will accelerate these developments.
