Clean Hydrogen in European Cities

The Clean Hydrogen in European Cities (CHIC) Project is the essential next step to full commercialisation of hydrogen powered fuel cell (H2FC) buses. CHIC will reduce the ‘time to market’ for the technology and support ‘market lift off’ – 2 central objectives of the Joint Undertaking.

CHIC will:

• Intensively test the technology to generate learning for the final steps towards commercialisation by operating a minimum of 26 H2FC buses in medium sized fleets in normal city bus operation, and substantially enlarging hydrogen infrastructure in 5 European regions.
• Embed the substantial knowledge and experience from previous H2FC bus projects (CUTE & HyFLEET:CUTE).
• Accelerate development of clean public transport systems in new European Regions.
• Conduct a life cycle based sustainability assessment of the use of H2FC buses in public transport, based on a triple bottom line approach considering environmental, economic and social aspects.
• Identify the advantages, improvement potentials, complementarities and synergies of H2FC buses compared with conventional and alternative technologies
• Build a critical mass of public support for the benefits of ‘green’ hydrogen powered transport, leading to increased visibility and political commitment across Europe.

The project is based on a staged introduction and build-up of H2FC bus fleets and the supporting infrastructure across Europe. A phased approach will link experienced cities and new cities in partnerships, facilitating the smooth introduction of the new systems now and into the future. Using this arrangement the project will be linked to other projects fully funded from other sources and therefore magnifies the impact of the JTI.

In the context of the H2FC bus projects and progress achieved to this point, the expected results of CHIC will take the technology to the brink of commercialisation, leading in turn to very significant environmental & economic benefits to Europe and to the World.