" The European Commission is supporting the Coordination
Action “HyLights” and the Integrated Project “Roads2HyCom”
in the field of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells. The two projects
support the Commission in the monitoring and coordination
of ongoing activities of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Platform
(HFP), and provide input to the HFP for the planning and
preparation of future research and demonstration activities
within an integrated EU strategy.
The two projects are complementary and are working in close
coordination. HyLights focuses on the preparation of the largescale
demonstration for transport applications, while
Roads2Hycom focuses on identifying opportunities for research
activities relative to the needs of industrial stakeholders and
Hydrogen Communities that could contribute to the early adoption
of hydrogen as a universal energy vector.
Further information on the projects and their partners is available
on the project web-sites www.roads2hy.com and www.hylights.org.
Members of the Roads2Hycom project contributed to the contents
of this volume and commented on draft versions.
Their input is gratefully acknowledged."
Element Energy (editors)
October 2007

 

Contents

1    A Vision of a Hydrogen Energy Economy............................ 6
1.1 Introduction to hydrogen as an energy vector ................... 6
1.2 Hydrogen Energy Chains ................................................. 15
1.3 The Current State of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells ................. 22
2    The Road to a Hydrogen Economy................................... 28
2.1 Barriers to use of hydrogen:............................................ 28
2.2 Possible pathway to a hydrogen economy....................... 30
2.3 Existing Efforts................................................................ 35
3    Hydrogen Communities .................................................. 38
3.1 What is a Hydrogen Community? ..................................... 38
3.2 Why are hydrogen communities important? ..................... 40
3.3 What are the benefits for the community? ....................... 42
3.4 Examples of communities................................................ 44
4    Next steps....................................................................... 48
5    Glossary and list of abbreviations ................................... 49