ECTOS - Ecological City Transport System
Overview
Background & policy context:
The government of Iceland had declared its ambitious goal of becoming the first hydrogen society in the world. For that purpose Icelandic New Energy Ltd. (INE) was founded as a public private partnership. INE also became the coordinator of the ECTOS project. ECTOS was involved in running and testing three fuel cell buses on emission free hydrogen for two years and a survey of numerous related parameters. The first two years were used for preparations, building the needed infrastructure, organise training and maintenance, etc.
Objectives:
The overall objective of the ECTOS project is to tackle the problem of local urban pollution, by offering the solution of using hydrogen for powering part of the transport sector that is with hydrogen fuel cell buses. The purpose is to demonstrate and evaluate the hydrogen based infrastructure for public transport vehicles and the operation of pollution free hydrogen buses in a CO2 free environment in Reykjavik, Iceland. The overall defined strategic goal of the project is also clear:
to prove that it is possible to operate a hydrogen fuel cell transportation system, including hydrogen infrastructure as well as hydrogen vehicles in the city of tomorrow,
to show that it will have benefits for the society at large to operate the future transport system on hydrogen, including socio-, environmental and economical factors.
Methodology:
Details not available beyond: The impact assessment (socio-economic and environmental studies [so-called non-technical face of ECTOS]) for this miniature study of a 'hydrogen driven society' has three main areas:
- First, the acceptance was estimated on behalf of the operators, bus drivers and the public (achieved through public surveys).
- Secondly, the energy efficiency and environmental effectiveness was estimated and calculated (achieved by calculation of the 'well to tank' efficiency, using official numbers for the energy distribution systems and a set of data from the normal operation-sequence of the hydrogen station. The 'tank to wheel' efficiency has been measured twice during set periods of total data collection from fuel cells, passenger counting, mileage driven and fuel use. The first round led to a few small adjustments to the bus-operation).
- Thirdly, is the cost and benefit at large.
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