Hydro Looking for Hydrogen Hybrid Car Users

25 October 2005

A sketch of the proposed H2 filling station at Herøya.

Hydro’s Ulf Hafseld is looking for a few good hydrogen car drivers. The target group is future-oriented local interests with an environmental profile.

The HyNor project, which wants to build a hydrogen highway between the cities of Oslo and Stavanger (earlier post) is seeking a commercial bid on a fleet of hydrogen vehicles comprising 15 Toyota Prius hybrids with their engines converted to run on hydrogen fuel.

HyNor Grenland also hopes to include Think Nordic’s new hydrogen plug-in hybrid, TH!NK hydrogen, scheduled to become available in 2006. (Earlier post.)

The plan calls for Miljøbil Grenland to buy hydrogen vehicles that are leased out to local users. But the prerequisite for the project is to have enough local users. A number of parties have expressed interest, but “it’s still possible to be a hydrogen car user.”

An “adequate” number of vehicles is needed to make the proposed hydrogen station at Herøya—which would be the first on the HyNor highway—a reality.

The hydrogen to be used at that station is a by-product of chlorine production at the petrochemical plants in Rafnes. The plan is to extend an existing pipeline to transport hydrogen from Rafnes to Herøya.

Hydro took the initiative in 2003 to coordinate internal company activities towards the goal of helping develop hydrogen as a means of transportation in Norway. HyNor currently has some 30 project partners at six different locations. Hydro heads up the HyNor project.

HyNor plans to build a hydrogen highway from Stavanger to Oslo with hydrogen stations in Stavanger, Lyngdal, Grimstad, Porsgrunn, Drammen and Oslo. The goal is that cars fueled by hydrogen can travel between Oslo and Stavanger by 2008.