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Procedings
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76 e n e r g y + p r o c e e d i n g s than is currently anticipated without the benefit of
hydrogen
. the infrastructure needed for a
hydrogen
economy is expected to be technically feasible, though it will require tremendous investment and research effort. strong policy initiatives are required from the eu and its member states if the change to
hydrogen
is to take place at a cost that is acceptable to the societies concerned. looking ahead to 2050, it is possible to imagine three scenarios for producing
hydrogen
: clean fossil
fuel
, nuclear power and renewable
energy
. in each case the efficiency of
energy
conversion would have to be well above today’s standards to meet future global increas- es in
energy
consumption. in the clean fossil
fuel
s scenario,
hydrogen
would be generated from coal or oil. the resulting co 2 would be removed from the flue gas and disposed in aquifers or at the bottom of the ocean. the general conclusion is that enough hy- drogen is available in the very long term for
hydrogen
to become a significant part of the world’s
energy
sys- tem. the decision whether to place
hydrogen
along- side electricity in the backbone of our
energy
supply needs to be taken within the next ten years. 2050 may then still be the earliest time scale for a significant role for
hydrogen
in the global
energy
system. environmental impact
hydrogen
as a
fuel
has a low environmental impact at the point of use, with no emissions of greenhouse gases or most other pollutants. the amounts of hy- drogen entering and leaving the atmosphere, and the routes by which this will happen, are still very un- certain, but our current knowledge suggests that the widespread use of hyrogen would involve little envi- ronmental risk.
hydrogen
is no more hazardous than conventional
fuel
s, but its safety-related properties are significantly different from those of conventional
fuel
s. thus, detailed risk assessments are needed for every element in the
hydrogen
supply chain. international rd&d international
hydrogen
research and development is comprehensive. japan is one of the most ambitious countries in its
hydrogen
programme. in 2002 usa launched an extensive research and development strategy to develop
hydrogen
vehicles and a
hydrogen
infrastructure. the current budget commitment is 1.2 busd over 5 years. achievements in the us program were recently summarized (doe, 2008): • the cost of producing
hydrogen
reduced by 40%. • the projected cost of automotive
fuel
cell systems at high volumes reduced from $275/kw in 2002 to about $95/kw – a 65% reduction. • the durability of automotive
fuel
cells doubled from 1,000 hours in 2003 to 2,000 hours, well on track towards meeting our target of 5,000 hours. • new materials identified with a 50% improvement in
hydrogen
storage capacity, compared to 2004. • national
hydrogen
learning demonstration cur- rently includes 92
fuel
cell vehicles and 16
hydrogen
fuel
ling stations. doe has collected data from more than one million miles travelled; • the safety of
hydrogen
technologies as well as edu- cation of stakeholders have been demonstrated. international partnership for the
hydrogen
economy (iphe) was launched in 2003, and it is the largest global effort so far aimed at harmonizing progress towards a global
hydrogen
infrastructure. the iphe partners are australia, brazil, canada, china, the european commission, france, germany, iceland, india, italy, japan, norway, russia, south korea, the uk and the usa. the european commission has launched a joint technology initiative in
hydrogen
and
fuel
cells in may 2008 with a total expected budget over 6 years of €940 mill.. the main rd&d lines of this program are shown in figure 3.
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