Danish Strategy for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells - HY-CO Home

Summary and Recommendations
Hydrogen as an energy carrier is becoming an increasingly important item on the
international political agenda for energy and research. Many countries in the
world have great expectations for hydrogen and fuel cell technology as an
important contributor to a future sustainable energy economy seeing a gradual
reduction in the reliance on fossil fuels, a reduction of the emission of greenhouse
gases and increased use of renewable sources of energy.
A global development has begun towards a widespread use of hydrogen, the socalled
hydrogen economy. This process will accelerate as oil prices rise and
become unpredictable and new technological progress is made. The propagation
of hydrogen as energy carrier and fuel depends on the commercial availability of
fuel cell technology. This is an area in which Denmark already has a strong
position internationally as a result of ongoing R&D since the early 1990s.
Continued focus on the development and implementation of technologies
involving the production, storage and system integration of hydrogen, partly in
conjunction with fuel cell technology, creates the possibility of diversity and
flexibility in energy supply in the long run. In the short and medium term,
alternative fuels such as natural gas and rape seed oil can help reduce the oil
dependency, and in the long term hydrogen will provide greenhouse gas emissionfree
transportation.
This strategy report describes existing and future technologies for hydrogen
production, distribution and use. The international development in this field is
also described. The report highlights the areas in which Danish R&D can help
promote Danish industry in the future global market for hydrogen and fuel cell
technologies. The report indicates the tools necessary for hydrogen to become part
of the public Danish energy system. Finally, the report describes a possible
organisational framework as well as the costs involved in a project of the
mentioned scope.
The strategy development comprised three stages. The initial stage involved an
overview of key hydrogen technologies and international activities in general as
well as an analysis of interested parties and an evaluation of the previous
hydrogen programme. This stage was followed by intensive work among
interested parties in six working groups spelling out the Danish competencies and
possibilities (Appendix 1 contains a list of project participants). The groups work
covered hydrogen production, storage and distribution, stationary and portable
applications, application in the transport sector, international co-operation as well
as economic aspects and future prospects. The reports from the working groups
underlying the strategy were the subject of a workshop in November 2004. They
were published together with the reports from the initial stage as independent
working group reports and are available (in Danish) at www.energiforskning.dk.
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