Roads2HyCom:About
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About Roads2HyCom Roads2HyCom is a project supported by the European Commission’s Framework Six program. Its purpose is to assess and monitor hydrogen and fuel cell technologies for stationary and mobile energy applications. This is done by considering what the technology is capable of, relative to current and future hydrogen infrastructures and energy resources, and the needs of communities that may be early adopters of the technology. By doing this, the project will support the Commission and stakeholders in planning future research activities. Project main website: http://www.roads2hy.com Roads2HyCom publications and reports can be accessed from the Publications page. HyLights, Roads2HyCom and the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technology Platform (HFP) The European Commission is supporting the Coordination Action "HyLights" and the Integrated Project "Roads2HyCom" in the field of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells. The two projects support the Commission in the monitoring and coordination of ongoing activities of the HFP, and provide input to the HFP for the planning and preparation of future research and demonstration activities within an integrated EU strategy. The two projects are complementary and are working in close coordination. HyLights focuses on the preparation of the large scale demonstration for transport applications, while Roads2Hycom focuses on identifying opportunities for research activities relative to the needs of industrial stakeholders and Hydrogen Communities that could contribute to the early adoption of hydrogen as a universal energy vector. Further information on HyLights is available on the project web-site at http://www.hylights.org. |
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About The Roads2HyCom projectRoads2HyCom (“Research co-Ordination, Assessment, Deployment and Support to HyCOM”, and often further abbreviated as “R2H”) is an Integrated Project supported by the European Commission’s Framework Programme Six (FP6), Priority 6.1 “Sustainable Development, Global Change and Ecosystems”. It is a techno-socio-economic research project acting as a planning support and stakeholder outreach instrument for the European Commission and the Joint Technology Initiative. In practise, what the project does is to bring together detail studies on the landscape and state-of-the art in critical technologies, infrastructure and resources for future energy supply (especially in the form of Hydrogen), and the characteristics and needs of early-adopting communities (including political drivers and financing issues), to examine the process of transition from the present day to a future where both Fuel Cells and Hydrogen play significant roles in the energy economy. The project has delivered detailed reports on each topic along the way, supported by online databases and knowledge resources; it has also delivered stakeholder workshops aimed both at technologists and those active in establishing politically-motivated early adopter communities. Further information, and all the detailed reports and databases referred to in this document, are available at the project’s website http://www.roads2hy.com. The project has the European Commission DG-Research reference number SES6-019723. |
Project Methodology and Structure
The project is structured around eight work-packages, of which WP 1 to 7 forms the functional core (WP5 was merged into WP4 during an early re-structure of the project).
WP1, 2 and 3 essentially gather information, supported by some initial analysis. In WP4, this information is further analysed to look at how technology development, resources and infrastructure, and early-adopting communities, can come together to promote evolutionary steps in the energy economy. WP6 and 7 are the project’s outputs, with WP6 being directed towards technologists and WP7 towards community stakeholders.
Linking so many fields in a totally objective and relevant way is a very great challenge. Mathematically based techniques were considered but rejected on the basis that the number of arbitrary factors (weightings, rankings, interactions) involved would render any result unreliable. Instead, the project devised a framework of “metrics” which were available to be considered, where relevant, by each work-package and task. This basic framework served to ensure that important issues were considered through the project, but allowed the development of detail sub-methodologies (including in some cases detailed sub-metrics) for each task. Of course some of these metrics are not relevant to some parts of the study, in which case they were disregarded.
Table 1: Roads2HyCom Metrics
| Metrics | Example Definition |
| Technology Accessibility | Product availability, IP restrictions |
| Global Environmental Impact | Life-cycle CO2 or resource use |
| Local Environmental Impact | Impact on local air quality, noise, etc. |
| Efficiency | Efficiency of system relative to benchmarks |
| Capacity & Availability | Percent up-time of a system, capacity of infrastructure |
| Cost | Purchase, operation, life-cycle costs |
| Safety | Safety in use relative to benchmarks |
| Public Acceptance | Public attitude toward technology / infrastructure |
| Political Will | Availability of funding, enabling legislation |
| Security and Sustainability | Energy chain security or sustainability |
| Potential for Growth | Ability to reproduce application in another area |
Further description of these metrics, and how they were used in the gathering and analysis of data for the project, is given in the following sections of this report.
| Roads2HyCom Project Objectives
The over-riding objective of Roads2HyCom is to assess and monitor current and future Hydrogen and Fuel Cell technologies for stationary and mobile energy generation against current and future application requirements, and the needs of communities which may adopt these technologies, in order to support the Commission and stakeholders, particularly the HFP, in planning future activities. In detail, this objective can be sub-divided to align with the project work-package structure:
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The Project Partnership
The project has been executed by a consortium of 29 partners from industry, consultancies, research institutions and academia, representing sectors such as Energy and Hydrogen supply, Transport industries (surface and air), Stationary power (buildings, industry), Engineering and Socio-Economic research, and Community expertise. Every partner has had an active role in the project (beyond a simple advisory capacity), with the objective of ensuring that information used had the benefit of input and peer review from the broadest possible cross-section of sectors.
The project has enjoyed the financial support and guidance of the European Commission, DG-Research. As such, it has sought to work alongside related Commission-supported projects and initiatives, including:
 | HyLights is a co-ordination action to accelerate the commercialisation of hydrogen and fuel cells in the field of transport in Europe. The two projects have co-operated in a number of areas including exchange of information on Hydrogen infrastructures and Demonstration projects; and the organisation of Workshops |
 | HyWays is a research project which has developed roadmaps and market transformation models for the development of a Hydrogen economy; scenarios and information from this project has been used as a basis for parts of Roads2HyCom |
 | Dynamis is a project to prepare the ground for large-scale European facilities producing hydrogen and electricity from fossil fuels with CO2 capture and permanent storage. Roads2HyCom has held joint workshops with Dynamis and exchanged information on CCS |
 | HFPEurope – the European Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Platform (HFP) is a stakeholder body, which facilitates and accelerates the development and deployment of cost-competitive, world class European hydrogen and fuel cell based energy systems and component technologies for applications in transport, stationary and portable power. Roads2HyCom has supplied feedback on two drafts of the HFP’s “Implementation Plan”, a foundation document for the JTI described below; Roads2HyCom partners have served on several of the HFP’s working groups and employed project information in that role |
 | JTI - Branded as “New Energy World” and officially titled the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative, the JTI is a public-private partnership on an unprecedented scale, with the objective of bringing these technologies closer to commercialisation. Roads2HyCom has supplied detail recommendations into the planning of JTI activities |
 | HyRaMP – the European Hydrogen Regions and Municipalities Partnership is a partnership of potential municipal early adopters of Fuel Cell and Hydrogen technologies. Roads2HyCom supported the foundation of HyRamp, and has organised workshops in collaboration with them |
