ZERO REGIO - Lombardia & Rhein-Main towards Zero Emission: Development and Demonstration of Infrastructure Systems for Hydrogen as an Alternative Motor Fuel
Overview
Background & policy context:
Zero Regio stands for Zero Emission Regions and was an integrated hydrogen demonstration project. the aim of the project was to develop a transport system based on hydrogen driven fuel-cell cars and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in two European regions: Frankfurt in Germany and Lombardia in Italy.
Supported by the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission, hydrogen infrastructure including hydrogen refuelling stations was built and tested with dedicated car fleets in the Rhein-Main and Lombardia regions during the five years of the project. Members were different companies and institutions from four Member States of the European Union.
Objectives:
With an overall objective of developing low-emission transport systems for European cities, the specific objectives of the project ZERO REGIO were:
- use of hydrogen as an alternative motor fuel, produced as primary or waste stream in a chemical plant or alternatively through small 'on-site' production facilities;
- development of infrastructure systems for hydrogen consisting of hydrogen production, compression, storage and distribution equipment and integration of these in conventional refuelling stations;
- adaptation and demonstration of 700 bar refuelling technology for hydrogen;
- demonstration of hydrogen as an alternative fuel via automobile-fleet field tests at two different urban locations in the EU, Rhein-Main, Germany, and Lombardia, Italy;
- showing ways and prospects for faster penetration of hydrogen as a zero-emission alternative motor fuel in the transportation market at short and medium term.
Experience gained during the field tests and results obtained in this project would contribute to the objective of the European Commission of 5% substitution by hydrogen as an alternative motor fuel in the road transport sector by the year 2020.
Methodology:
The infrastructure for fuel transport from source to the station was implemented in the project. For hydrogen different transport solutions were addressed: pipelining and trailers from a centralised production facility as well as local on-site production. Car fleets were delivered and implemented by the automobile manufacturers Daimler and Fiat. Field tests with the low-emission vehicles were performed by Infraserv, TÜV and airport authorities in the Rhein-Main region. The car fleets served for local deliveries, post distributions, taxi operations, passenger transfer etc. Technical as well as socio-economic evaluations of field tests led to suggestions and models for faster penetration of alternative motor fuels over larger urban areas in the EU.
The work on the project will be conducted in two phases and will encompass the following tasks:
1. Phase I - Design & Construction of Infrastructure (2005 -2006):
- transport & distribution of H2 in Frankfurt;
- production and distribution in Mantova;
- approval and building of multifuel service stations;
- integration in conventional service stations.
2. Phase II -Demonstration (2007-2009):
- fleet acquisition and training;
- data collection;
- data evaluation - technical & socio-economic;
- dissemination & exploitation of results.
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