A3PS international conference: Alternative Propulsion Systems and Energy Carriers

Our loyal readers already know the Austrian Agency for Alternative Propulsion Systems (A3PS) from earlier coverage. The association are organising the international conference Alternative Propulsion Systems and Energy Carriers of 16 October, promising information on the latest developments and strategies of the fuel and automotive industry.

Although the Nationale Organisation Wasserstoff- und Brennstoffzellentechnologie (NOW) won't be revealing any market entry strategies they may be considering (see highlight below), perhaps other giants in the automotive field, like Daimler, Renault and Shell, will lift a tip of the veil. And if not their strategies, at least some interesting research and development (R&D) results will be reason enough to visit this conference, together of course with an excellent networking opportunity.

Impulse
On the programme are also the activities of various Austrian companies and R&D institutions in the field of the alternative drive trains and energy carrier technologies. After the four keynote addresses, these A3PS members will be presenting the goals and results of the so-called A3 and A3plus “impulse programmes for energy efficient and environmentally friendly future traffic”. These are R&D funding programmes by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT).

Highlight: Nationale Organisation Wasserstoff- und Brennstoffzellentechnologie

NOW is the urgent sounding acronym for the German Nationale Organisation Wasserstoff- und Brennstoffzellentechnologie (National Organisation Hydrogen and Fuel cell technology). And now is when things start rolling. Or is it?

Evaluation precedes implementation in the German plans for a hydrogen infrastructure, the 'H2 Mobility' initiative. Leading industrial parties together with the German Minister of Transport, Wolfgang Tiefensee, and the National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel cell technology (NOW) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last September 10th, to “evaluate” the viability of a nation-wide hydrogen infrastructure.

Partners will first leverage their plans to install a network of hydrogen fuelling stations by 2011. If it all turns out promising, a nation-wide roll-out will follow, to support the introduction of series produced hydrogen powered vehicles in Germany around 2015.

Daimler, EnBW, Linde, OMV, Shell, Total, Vattenfall and NOW are the current partners, but the cooperation is open to other interested parties.

Particularly suitable
Germany is a “potential start-market in the context of a broader European perspective,” according to NOW's press release about the MoU. What makes Germany particularly suitable for hydrogen?

Tilman Wilhelm, spokesperson for NOW, stresses: “We don't mean to say that other countries are not fit for hydrogen. It is just that in Germany both politics and industry pour a substantial amount of money into this programme: a total of 1.4 billion euros. Together with the excellent state of technologies and the amount of demonstration projects, that can make the country a good start market.”

So everything comes together in Germany, in part thanks to NOW, which is not only a signing party to the MoU, but was also the coordinator of the programme building up to the agreement.

No either/or discussion
At the coming A3PS conference NOW's managing director Dr Klaus Bonhoff will be joining a panel discussion, which will be a 'comparative assessment of alternative propulsion systems and fuels'. What will Bonhoff name as the advantages of hydrogen over other systems?

“We don't conceive of this as an 'either/or discussion',” Tilman says. “Of course one advantage of hydrogen is that it has zero emission. Also, hydrogen can help to boost other alternative energy sources, because it can be used for energy storage. For instance, there is more wind energy at night time, but then there is not so much energy use. Hydrogen can be used to store wind energy until it is needed.

“In a quick comparison to electric mobility, though,” Tilman continues, “you could say that electric mobility is particularly suitable for urban transport, because it has limited range and requires long recharging time, while hydrogen has recently extended its range and takes the same refuelling time as petrol.”

Knock before entering
The panel discussion will focus on “which market entry strategies will be successful.” But it is too early to name any concrete steps yet.

“This was merely the market preperation phase,” Tilman says, “the next step will be market introduction. Again, that will be between politics and industry, but NOW could play a coordinating role as it has done for market preparation.”

So now will probably not be the last time we've heard of NOW.