Demonstration of Small 4-Wheel fuel cell passenger vehicle Applications in Regional and Municipal transport

Periodic Report Summary 3 - SWARM (Demonstration of Small 4-Wheel fuel cell passenger vehicle Applications in Regional and Municipal transport)

Project Context and Objectives: Significant progress on development activities and preparation for demonstration activities were achieved during the third period of the project. Key progresses in the last period include: • Continued for the fleet of MicroCab Hydrogen...

Project Context and Objectives:

Significant progress on development activities and preparation for demonstration activities were achieved during the third period of the project.

Key progresses in the last period include:

• Continued for the fleet of MicroCab Hydrogen Electric Vehicles (H2EVs) in Coventry (UK) alongside a recommissioned Hydrogen Refuelling Stations (HRS) at Coventry University and Birmingham University.

• Successful public launch of the Riversimple Mark2 Alpha pre-production prototype, the Rasa, with innovative powertrain in February 2016 with national and international media coverage.

• Commisssioning and successulf opening of the Air Liquide HRS in Belgium on the Toyota premises in Zaventem has been confirmed with national and international media coverage and participation.This station is the first public HRS in Belgium and will connect the country to the European hydrogen network.

• Development of a new vehicle type, the HyLITE, by MicroCab for further demonstration activities (due to start in late 2016).

• Confirmed collaboration of the host city for the 2016 trial of 20 Rasa cars in the UK with Monmouthshire council working in collaboration with Riversimple for the next phase, including the planning for the HRS.

• Continued development of the protoype for the first H20 e-mobile vehicle, the elano.

• Initiation of the reaserach and optimisation activities conducted in collaboration by MicroCab, Coventry Univeristy, H20 e-mobile, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Université de Liège, Jade-Hochschule Wilhelmshaven-Oldenburg / Elsfleth and Next Energy.

Additional information can be found on the news section of the SWARM website: http://swarm-project.eu/news.html

Project Results:

The period 3 of the project was marked by a full restart of the activities gearing towards the demonstration activities planned for the final period of the project as per the revised project’s objectives agrerd as part of the changes to the project’s plan implemented during Period 1. For the avoidance of the doubt, this report uses the latest version of the DOW 07.12.2015 with references to objectives and timeplans for activities as planned after the renegotiation took place.

Key objectives for the period 3 included:

• WP1: First generation vehicles development completed and beginning of work for 2nd generation vehicles

• WP2: Commissioning of refuelling infrastructure in the three regions.

• WP3: support infrastructure in place in the three regions.

• WP4/5/6: Beginning of vehicles operation in the three regions.

• WP7: Beginning of improvement and optimisation work.

• WP8: Beginning of reach out activities and Public kick-off for the project.

These objectives were only partially achieved with significant progresses realised in some cases and and timeplans shifting to to later than anticipated for others. However, the overall objectives were achieved and the project is broadly on track compared to the revised plan for the project. Progresses are described in their dedicated WPs’ sections.

Potential Impact:

The overarching objectives of the project are:

1. Fleets of critical mass – by deploying hydrogen technologies in small vehicle classes, large vehicle fleets (up to 20 in each region).

2. Low cost small vehicles – the vehicles produced in this project will all have low volume production costs below 80,000 euros (in one case, the costs are below 50,000 euros).

3. New regional hydrogen fuelling networks – the project will enable the deployment of clusters of hydrogen filling stations in cities in all three European regions.

4. Increased density of fuelling in Europe – the three regions are well situated to extend Europe’s fuelling network, connecting Hamburg and the Scandinavian regions to Benelux and France and extending the hydrogen network in the UK out from London towards Scotland.

5. Demonstrate a complementary approach to hydrogen vehicle drive trains – these vehicles are all built in battery dominant hybrid mode. This is a novel approach, which optimises the cost, performance and energy efficiency of both battery and fuel cell/hydrogen storage technologies.

6. European SME’s – the project involves a range of European SME’s facilitating the introduction of dynamic new European companies into Europe’s hydrogen economy.

7. Strong involvement of European research institutions.

8. Maximum exposure.

9. Seed regions for future commercial rollout – the project supplies 3 new refuelling station sites in 3 new cluster regions.

10. As far as hydrogen supply is concerned, the employment of hydrogen derived from renewable energy sources or as by-product of chemical processes will be preferred.

List of Websites:

www.swarm-project.eu

Periodic Report Summary 2 - SWARM (Demonstration of Small 4-Wheel fuel cell passenger vehicle Applications in Regional and Municipal transport)

Significant progress on development activities and preparation for demonstration activities were achieved during the second period of the project. This follows a short break in the demonstration activities during which a full review of the...

Project Context and Objectives:

Significant progress on development activities and preparation for demonstration activities were achieved during the second period of the project. This follows a short break in the demonstration activities during which a full review of the project was conducted allowing a rebalancing of the activities to ensure they are aligned with the partners’ commercial plans and that they benefit the regional H2 deployment plans in the respective project’s regions.

Key progresses in the last period include:

• Development and beginning of operation for two MicroCab Hydrogen Electric Vehicles (H2EVs) in Coventry (UK) alongside started process for recommissioning of Hydrogen Refuelling Station (HRS) at Coventry University (to be completed in Nov. 15). The fleet will soon be completed by an additional 8 vehicles, including the newly developed HyLITE vehicles. The existing HRS at Birmingham University will be recommissioned in early 2016, consolidating further the hydrogen refuelling network in the Midlands (UK).

• Successful build of the Riversimple Mark2 Alpha pre-production prototype, with innovative powertrain. The car is running and will be launched publicly in January 2016. The host city for the 2016 trial of 20 cars in the UK is under wraps for the time being but will be announced shortly. Site planning for the refuelling is the next phase of development, along with the go-ahead to build the trial cars.

• The Air Liquide HRS in Belgium on the Toyota premises in Zaventem has been confirmed. This station will be the first public HRS in Belgium and will connect the country to the European hydrogen network. The station can refill between 30 and 40 cars a day with each refill taking less than 5 minutes and will be operational by mid-2016.

Additional information can be found on the news section of the SWARM website: http://swarm-project.eu/news.html

The second period of the project was marked by significant changes to the project’s plan and scope and, to some extent, by a renegotiation of the project’s objectives.

The project was suspended starting from 01/09/2014 (M23) following a technical review by the FCH JU programme office that was held in July 2014 (M20). The project restarted officially on 01/06/2015 (M24) after renegotiation with the FCH JU. The activities for the project remain globally the same but the total number of vehicles was reduced and timespan adapted to ensure that the project objectives can be met.

The overarching objectives of the project remain the same. They are listed below.

1. Fleets of critical mass – by deploying hydrogen technologies in small vehicle classes, large vehicle fleets (up to 20 in each region).

2. Low cost small vehicles – the vehicles produced in this project will all have low volume production costs below 80,000 euros (in one case, the costs are below 50,000 euros).

3. New regional hydrogen fuelling networks – the project will enable the deployment of clusters of hydrogen filling stations in cities in all three European regions.

4. Increased density of fuelling in Europe – the three regions are well situated to extend Europe’s fuelling network, connecting Hamburg and the Scandinavian regions to Benelux and France and extending the hydrogen network in the UK out from London towards Scotland.

5. Demonstrate a complementary approach to hydrogen vehicle drive trains – these vehicles are all built in battery dominant hybrid mode. This is a novel approach, which optimises the cost, performance and energy efficiency of both battery and fuel cell/hydrogen storage technologies.

6. European SME’s – the project involves a range of European SME’s facilitating the introduction of dynamic new European companies into Europe’s hydrogen economy.

7. Strong involvement of European research institutions.

8. Maximum exposure.

9. Seed regions for future commercial rollout – the project supplies 3 new refuelling station sites in 3 new cluster regions.

10. As far as hydrogen supply is concerned, the employment of hydrogen derived from renewable energy sources or as by-product of chemical processes will be preferred.

The coming period (P3) will see key milestones for the project achieved with the demonstration activities staring in the three European regions and vehicles and supporting refuelling infrastructure starting operation. This will be presented to the public during a public kick-off dissemination event (most likely to be organised by in September 2016).

Project Results:

Key progresses in the last period include:

• Development and beginning of operation for two MicroCab Hydrogen Electric Vehicles (H2EVs) in Coventry (UK) alongside a recommissioned Hydrogen Refuelling Station (HRS). The fleet will soon be completed by an additional 8 vehicles, including the newly developed HyLITE vehicles. The existing HRS at Coventry and Birmingham University will be recommissioned shortly (Nov. 15 and Feb. 16), consolidating further the hydrogen refuelling network in the Midlands (UK).

• Successful build of the Riversimple Mark2 Alpha pre-production prototype, with innovative powertrain. The car is running and will be launched publicly in January 2016. The host city for the 2016 trial of 20 cars in the UK is under wraps for the time being but will be announced shortly. Site planning for the refuelling is the next phase of development, along with the go-ahead to build the trial cars.

• Commissioning work for the Air Liquide HRS will start in Belgium on the Toyota premises in Zaventem (in Oct. 15). This station will be the first public HRS in Belgium and will connect the country to the European hydrogen network. The station can refill between 30 and 40 cars a day with each refill taking less than 5 minutes and will be operational by mid-2016.

Potential Impact:

The project will deliver the following results that are key to the achievement of the FCH JU goals:

• enlargement of existing hydrogen refuelling sites and addition of new sites to interlink regions of hydrogen fleet operation

• employment of fleets of passenger and small transport vehicles

• provision of 35 and 70 MPa refuelling infrastructure at selected sites in the three regions, supplying up to 200 kg H2/day per region, ensuring that more than 50 cars or 5 buses can be re-fuelled per day in each region and 5 cars or 1-2 buses can be re-fuelled within one hour; concept for upgrading filling stations to 100 vehicles/day service, depending on the development of consumption figures at the various sites; guarantee of 98% refuelling availability

• hydrogen cost to consumer at station ~€10/kg (plus sales tax); cost improvements to be achieved by higher throughput after adding new customers; hydrogen purity and vehicle refuelling time according to SAE and ISO specifications; total hydrogen production efficiency over 60% due to use of industrial surplus and renewable energy derived hydrogen

• goal of 2,000h vehicle operation lifetime initially, with increase to 5,000h lifetime as project target (not achievable within project duration); MTBF >1,000 km; availability >95% and tank-to-wheel efficiency >40% (NEDC)

• broad dissemination, staff exchange and communication programme.

List of Websites:

www.swarm-project.eu

Periodic Report Summary 1 - SWARM (Demonstration of Small 4-Wheel fuel cell passenger vehicle Applications in Regional and Municipal transport)

This project will establish a large demonstration fleet of small passenger vehicles that builds on and expands existing hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. Three regions will be participating in this effort: the British Midlands, the Brussels...

Project Context and Objectives:

This project will establish a large demonstration fleet of small passenger vehicles that builds on and expands existing hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. Three regions will be participating in this effort: the British Midlands, the Brussels area and Wallonia, and the Weser-Ems region in NorthWest Germany. Each of these regions will deploy a new hydrogen refuelling site to close the gaps in a continuous ‘hydrogen highway’ that leads from Scotland via the Midlands to London, connecting to Brussels and on to Cologne and Hamburg/ Scandinavia/ Berlin via Bremen.

The vehicles employed are low-cost, high fuel-efficiency, hybridised, light-weight passenger cars specifically designed for city and regional transport. These vehicles provide a complementary pathway to commercialisation to the large Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of hydrogen fuel cell options, by allowing near-term rollout on a commercial basis to a wide range of users – in parallel with the planned rollouts for large OEM vehicles from 2015. Their deployment regions will gain the infrastructure, public exposure and technological understanding to act as seed locations for future large scale OEM vehicle rollout.

In view of the lower vehicle costs, this project will deploy an unprecedented number of road vehicles for a demonstration project, with three OEM’s contributing 30, 10 and 50 vehicles respectively to the project. These will be put in the hands of real users in a variety of real-life operating environments. An extensive data monitoring exercise will run throughout the 3 year demonstration phase, allowing the reliability of the vehicles tested by different users to be evaluated and leading to recommendations for the improvement of future, fully commercial vehicle designs.

The three regions will deploy several hydrogen refuelling stations, adding a total of 3 new stations to existing supply sites, creating some of the first regional hydrogen refuelling clusters in Europe. Each region will as a consequence own a high-standard filling station with high capacity (200 kg/day) and high performance (70 MPa) refuelling technology, supported by existing smaller stations of lower capacity and pressure (depending on region).

The project will be a near-commercial stepping stone and will include a reach-out activity timed to coincide with OEM’s commercialisation plans in the 2013-2015 period, to attract further vehicles to the extensive regional refuelling infrastructure clusters - by offering cost effective and readily available focal points for additional hydrogen fleets developing around these regions. Therefore supplementing the SWARM fleet and infrastructure by more vehicles and hydrogen filling stations supplied through other projects and separate funding.

The objectives for the project are as follows:

1. Fleets of critical mass – by deploying hydrogen technologies in small vehicle classes, large vehicle fleets (up to 30 in each region) will be installed at relatively low costs - increasing the exposure of the vehicles to new users, as well as the general public. This strategy gives a significant boost to the case for investment in the hydrogen infrastructure because it concentrates a large number of cars around a single filling station, the critical metric for a commercial case.

2. Low cost small vehicles – the vehicles produced in this project will all have low volume production costs below 80,000 euros (in one case, the costs are below 50,000 euros). This affordable price will enable genuine uptake by consumers and facilitate the earlier introduction of hydrogen as a fuel for consumer vehicles. The excellent fuel economy allows to charge a reasonable hydrogen price due to the vehicle still being cheaper per km.

3. New regional hydrogen fuelling networks – the project will enable the deployment of clusters of new hydrogen filling stations in cities in all three regions, initiating new hydrogen fuelling networks which can be developed as hydrogen vehicles move toward commercialisation.

4. Increased density of fuelling in Europe – the three regions are well situated to extend Europe’s fuelling network, connecting Hamburg and the Scandinavian regions to BeNeLux and France and extending the hydrogen network in the UK out from London towards Scotland.

5. Demonstrate a complementary approach to hydrogen vehicle drive trains – these vehicles are all built in battery dominant hybrid mode. This is a novel approach, which optimises the cost, performance and energy efficiency of both battery and fuel cell/hydrogen storage technologies. Demonstrating this alternative approach provides a new and complementary route to hydrogen vehicles for Europe’s hydrogen vehicle sector. The project will include an extensive technical data monitoring and analysis programme, as well as subjective customer feedback collection, to maximise the learning about the performance of these vehicles in real world use and the acceptance by users.

6. European SME’s – the project involves a range of European SME’s facilitating the introduction of dynamic new European companies into Europe’s hydrogen economy.

7. Strong involvement of European research institutions – employing the majority of vehicles at European universities and technology ‘parks’ in the vicinity of universities exposes students and university staff to future technologies and allows hands-on experience with ground-breaking vehicle concepts – thus mobilising the potential for new research ideas and breakthrough’s in fuel cell and hydrogen R&D.

8. Maximum exposure – the project will ensure maximum exposure for clean hydrogen vehicles – not only through the number of vehicles on European streets, but also through a widespread dissemination program targeting early adopters of hydrogen vehicles.

9. Seed regions for future commercial rollout – the project supplies 3 new refuelling station sites in 3 new cluster regions, dispensing hydrogen at competitive prices and therefore providing an attractive siting option for the pre-commercial and commercial rollout strategies of other vehicle OEMs. A well-structured industrial out-reach activity, timed to coincide with OEMs’ pre-commercial 2013-2015 rollout strategies, will help this process.

10. As far as hydrogen supply is concerned, the employment of hydrogen derived from renewable energy sources or as by-product of chemical processes will be preferred in order to demonstrate that fossil hydrogen is not necessary to power the infrastructure

Project Results:

Progress during the first project year was hampered since the discussions on the siting of the hydrogen filling stations (HRS) were more complicated and took longer than anticipated. Vehicle delivery was largely delayed (with execption of first MicroCab vehicle delivered in M11), partly due to late availability of suitable fuel cell systems. The research partners started work on designing and implementing the test rigs.

Potential Impact:

The project will deliver the following results that are key to the achievement of the FCH JU goals:

• enlargement of existing hydrogen refuelling sites and addition of new sites to interlink regions of hydrogen fleet operation

• employment of a large fleet (~100) of passenger and small transport vehicles

• provision of 35 and 70 MPa refuelling infrastructure at selected sites in the three regions, supplying 50 kg H2/day at all sites and 200 kg H2/day at one main site per region, ensuring that more than 50 cars or 5 buses can be re-fuelled per day in each region and 5 cars or 1-2 buses can be re-fuelled within one hour; concept for upgrading filling stations to 100 vehicles/day service, depending on the development of consumption figures at the various sites; guarantee of 98% refuelling availability

• hydrogen cost to consumer at station ~€10/kg (plus sales tax); cost improvements to be achieved by higher throughput after adding new customers; hydrogen purity and vehicle refuelling time according to SAE and ISO specifications; total hydrogen production efficiency over 60% due to use of industrial surplus and renewable energy derived hydrogen

• goal of 2,000h vehicle operation lifetime initially, with increase to 5,000h lifetime as project target (not achievable within project duration); MTBF >1,000 km; availability >95% and tank-to-wheel efficiency >40% (NEDC)

• broad dissemination, staff exchange and communication programme.

List of Websites:

www.swarm-project.eu