London Hydrogen Partnership Opens Tender for 60 Hydrogen-Fueled Vehicles
03 August 2006
The London Hydrogen Partnership (LHP) has launched an open tender for the acquisition of about 60 more hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles. In February, Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, announced that he wanted to introduced 70 more hydrogen-fueled vehicles to the city by 2010. (Earlier post.)
The new tender solicits proposals for the supply of up to 60 hydrogen cars, vans, motorbikes and other vehicle types (the procurement of 9 buses is already subject to a separate procurement exercise) from a range of suppliers. Both hydrogen internal combustion engine (ICE) and fuel-cell technology will be considered.
The vehicles will be operated by London’s public-sector fleets, with a focus on Central London operation. London will construct dedicated hydrogen refuelling facilities within the city to support this project. LHP will consider vehicles of all types, and likely will choose more than one supplier.
London currently has 3 fuel cell buses operating daily.
LHP formed in April 2002 to work towards a hydrogen economy for London and the UK. Its mission is to:
Produce and implement the London Hydrogen Action Plan as a route map for clean energy.
Establish and maintain dialogue among all sectors/actors relevant to the hydrogen economy.
Disseminate relevant materials; and
Provide a platform for funding bids and initiation of projects.
Resources:
If you live in the Maldives, you better buy a pair of wellies as London will be increasing global warming to make hydrogen.
The idea of H2 internal combustion engines is manifestly idiotic. And as everyone knows, fuel cells in the UK when the UK already burns fossil fuels for 70% of its electricity is completely daft. Worse, criminal. They'll probably need to burn more coal or gas to make the hydrogen. If you use gas to make hydrogen, then just burn the gas and save a load of CO2.
Hydrogen fuel cells were invented in the mid 19th century.....for good reason they have not been used for 150 years......they should be illegal in any country without a surplus of renewably generated electricity. The earth cannot afford hydrogen. Ken Livingstone should be ashamed of himself....how he can argue on global warmning grounds against Thames Water building a de-salination plant is amazing....hyprocracy rules OK
Posted by: John Baldwin | 03 August 2006 at 09:48 AM
Before attacking hydrogen one may wish to check the facts.
Fuelled with hydrogen fuel cells produce zero toxic emissions and no carbon dioxide at point of use. Even if the hydrogen is sourced initially from fossil fuels toxic emissions are negligible and, given a fuel cell’s high efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced significantly over the full energy cycle. For example, hydrogen derived from natural gas used in fuel cell powered vehicles offers savings in GHG emissions of about 30% on a well-to-wheel basis compared to conventional technologies.
[Source: Well-to-Wheels Analysis of Future Automotive Fuels and Powertrains in the European Context; Tank-to-Wheels Report. Analysis carried out by the European Commission Directorate General Joint Research Center (Institute for Environment and Sustainability) together with the European Council for Automotive R&D (EUCAR) and CONCAWE. First version published in December 2003, second version published in May 2006. Conducted with the scientific support by L-BSystemtechnik GmbH (Well-to-Tank) and Institut Français du Pétrole (Tank-to-Wheel).]
Posted by: Patrick Trezona | 04 August 2006 at 02:44 AM
Before you advocate hydrogen fuel cells, perhaps you need to research more about the key component of these fuel cells aka platinum.. And when you do your research about platinum, you'll see that supplies of platinum will not support the notion of a hydrogen fuel cell industry!!
Posted by: reno | 04 August 2006 at 06:31 AM
A number of studies have been undertaken on the subject of platinum availability. In particular I would refer you to the U.S. Department of Energy study. It concluded that there are sufficient platinum resources in the ground to meet long-term projected platinum demand from all applications. This study can be downloaded from http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/pdfs/tiax_platinum.pdf
Posted by: Patrick Trezona | 04 August 2006 at 08:55 AM
there may well be plenty of platinum but what is the cost of platinmun today and how high would the price go when millions of cars start using it for fool cells
the whole fool cell thing is a scam to keep people away from electric cars (which work now today) and in ICE cars for as long as possible so the oil industry can continue making money
why do you think bush keeps pushing money into hydrogen R and D he and big oil know it will never work its a scam its always just 5 or 10 years away
EVs work now today fool cells do not and never will
www.teslamotors.com
Posted by: antigravity | 06 August 2006 at 11:50 AM
The US DOE / TIAX study also covers the impact of fuel cell demand on the price of platinum. It is worth reading if one wishes to get a balanced understanding of the subject. It is also worth noting that over 95% of the platinum in a fuel cell can be recycled; a great deal of success has already been achieved in reducing the amount of platinum required and some types of advanced fuel cells do not use any platinum.
It is certainly reasonable to suggest that electric vehicles are the future but current battery technology is heavy, provides limited range and takes a long time to recharge. Some form of hybrid technology will probably provide the best solution to our motoring needs but whether this is ICE / battery or fuel cell / battery hybrid is something we cannot predict with any certainty.
Finally, the first major demonstration of over 30 fuel cell powered buses (using very immature technology) was recently successfully completed. As a result a number of European cities have decided to increase the number of hydrogen / fuel cell buses. Fuel cells will provide future generations with a clean and sustainable source of power. Where, when and in what applications is still uncertain. The other major question is which region will lead the move: right now I would bet on Japan and possibly China.
Posted by: Patrick Trezona | 07 August 2006 at 03:50 AM