New USGS methodology identifies 23 mineral commodities the supply of which poses greatest risk to manufacturing
President and CEO of Nemaska Lithium steps down after bankruptcy filing

ADEME selects two Air Liquide hydrogen mobility projects for funding

Two hydrogen mobility projects led by Air Liquide—Hype and HyAMMED—were selected in January 2020 by ADEME (French Environment & Energy Management Agency) as part of the second closing of its “Hydrogen Mobility Ecosystems” call for proposals.

Hype is developing the world’s first fleet of hydrogen-powered taxis. Launched during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, it now has around 100 vehicles. The “2020 HYPE 600” project aims to reach the 600-taxi mark by the end of 2020.

Banner_laureats_ademe_jan2020_1366x520px

Toyota will deliver 500 additional Mirai, which will supplement the existing fleet. At the same time, HysetCo, which includes Air Liquide, Idex, Kouros, the Société du Taxi Électrique Parisien (STEP) and Toyota, will invest in local hydrogen production facilities based on electrolysis, which will make it possible to supply 3 new hydrogen stations (HRS) in addition of those already in operation.

Through this project, the partners wish to demonstrate the relevance of hydrogen mobility for intensive applications such as passenger transport.

HyAMMED (Hydrogen in Aix-Marseille for an Ecological and Sustainable Mobility) aims to operate hydrogen trucks for long-distance transport of goods in the South-East of France. The partners thus intend to test this heavy transport solution by using low-carbon hydrogen co-produced in the Marseille-Fos port area.

The challenge of this project is to validate the maturity and reliability of this logistics transport solution. It will reduce emissions by more than 2,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, the equivalent of the annual emissions of more than 700 sedan cars.

ADEME selected a total of 10 initiatives. The “Hydrogen Mobility Ecosystems” call for proposals, the first wave of which was launched by ADEME in October 2018, is part of the Hydrogen Deployment Plan for Energy Transition and aims to deploy territorial hydrogen mobility ecosystems based on fleets of commercial vehicles.

According to the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, all of the projects selected by ADEME will lead to the deployment of more than 43 hydrogen stations and 158 heavy duty vehicles.

Comments

Davemart

A quick google showed me that Paris has 18,000 registered taxis, so this is around 3% of them.

The taxi market is in my view a great opportunity for expanding fuel cell cars, as Paris might represent only a percent or two of the total taxi market in big cities around the world.

FCEVs are clearly superior solution for this market to BEVs for a number of reasons:

Charge times - whilst you are charging, you are not making money.

Cold weather performance - minimal range loss, and plenty of power for AC in hot places too.

They address the biggest source remaining of emissions as the fleet turns around, and older vehicles are retired, which is non exhaust emissions;
https://www.greencarcongress.com/2019/07/20190714-nee.html

'Data from the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory indicate that particles from brake wear, tyre wear and road surface wear currently constitute 60% and 73% (by mass), respectively, of primary PM2.5 and PM10 emissions from road transport, and will become more dominant in the future. Currently they contribute 7.4% and 8.5% of all UK primary PM2.5 and PM10 emissions. Therefore to achieve further gains in PM2.5 and PM10 air quality in relation to road transport sources requires attention to reducing non-exhaust emissions, not solely a focus on lowering exhaust emissions.'

(see also graphs on link)

Now I don't entirely go along with those figures, as they ignore for instance the huge emissions of diesel cars in their cleaning cycle, so you end up with fake figures overall just as the zero rating in Europe for charging a BEV is utterly fake.

But nevertheless non exhaust emissions are an issue of increasing importance which since they filter the air FCEVs leave it cleaner in cities than before they passed by, whilst BEVs turn out loads of particulates, even though they have regenerative braking, which of course FCEVs also have.

Servicing for Toyota's FCEVs has proven to be simple and tthe reliability in fleet use is as good or better than the legendary Prius.

It is not even mentioned now, so I don't have a recent link!
But that is in itself significant.

Both Green Tomato in London and now Hype in Paris after extenisive experience are expanding their Mirai fleets, with none of the fleet issues due to unreliability that have hit Tesla.

Of course, the big limit is infrastructure, but the taxi market in itself seems to be large enough to act as a considerable driver in expanding that.

It also helps that the Mirai replacement is a 5 seater.

yoatmon

"....with none of the fleet issues due to unreliability that have hit Tesla."
That is an ambiguous statement, to say the least.
The issues that Tesla has been confronted with, pertain to their autopilot. Irrelevant of the fact that this function received a false name (should have been titled as "pilot assistant") Tesla has warned implicitly - that at this stage of development - the driver has to keep his hands on the steering wheel at all times. When a driver allows the vehicle full control (hands off) a warning is issued to remind the driver to resume control. Ignoring primary advice and implicit warnings is not a proof of enhanced intelligence, rather the opposite.

The comments to this entry are closed.