- Led by MATGAS, the consortium members include the following European public and private organisations: Air Products PLC, European Hydrogen Association, Solvay Speciality Polymers, Politecnico di Milano, McPhy Energy, SOL, CiaoTech (PNO Group) and Eindhoven University of Technology.
- Co-funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (European Commission), the initiative reaffirms Air Products’ leadership in the hydrogen sector, its commitment to safety and the development of alternative energies. The project will run until November 2014.
XX, 15 November 2013: Nine European partners, including associations, leading companies, universities, technological and research centres have launched H2TRUST, a consortium formed to foster a smooth and well managed transition to the full scale commercialisation of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) applications in Europe. In addition, the consortium will stress the importance of safety among all stakeholders. The project will be led by MATGAS, a joint venture between Air Products, the National Research Council of Spain and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, located in Barcelona.
One of the consortium’s main goals is to assess industry efforts to ensure FCH technology remains safe and that there is adequate regulation, hazard awareness, incident readiness and ability to respond to any public concerns. To ensure its goals are met, the consortium will meet regularly. Risk assessments will focus on each of the main application areas (hydrogen production, storage and distribution, mobility and vehicles, non-vehicles and residential power generation). The consortium expects that the results will help to create a long lasting culture of preventative safety in the industry, as well as a legacy of tools and knowledge that will reinforce best practice and public confidence.
“We hope that H2TRUST will help to accelerate the full scale commercialisation of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen applications in Europe, by providing accurate information to the public about the benefits of these technologies for a sustainable future,” said Dr. Lourdes Vega, Director of Spanish R+D Centre, MATGAS.
Hydrogen has several properties and, although it is most-recognised for its use in the aeronautics and space sectors, it is widely used in a variety of manufacturing processes. Hydrogen is used in refineries to convert heavy crude oils into cleaner-burning gasoline; in metal processors to reduce metal oxides and to prevent oxidation; in the chemical industry to synthesize compounds such as ammonia, and most recently in fuel cells powering ultra low emission cars, buses, locomotives, planes and even submarines.
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Notes to Editors:
The H2TRUST consortium consists of nine members from seven different European countries. For more information, please, visit the following websites:
H2TRUST website ()
- MATGAS 2000 AIE, Spain (www.matgas.org)
- Air Products Plc, UK (http://www.airproducts.com/industries/Energy/Hydrogen-Energy.aspx)
- European Hydrogen Association (FEDERAZIONE DELLE ASSOCIAZIONI SCIENTIFICHE E TECNICHE), Belgium ()
- Solvay Specialty Polymers Italy S.P.A., Italy ()
- Politecnico Di Milano, Italy ()
- McPhy Energy SA (MCPHY), France ()
- SOL S.p.A., Italy ()
- Ciaotech S.r.l. (PNO Group B.V.), Italy ()
- Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), The Netherlands ()
About MATGAS
MATGAS 2000 AIE, known as MATGAS, is a non-profit organization, born as a joint venture between Carburos Metálicos-Air Products Group, the National Research Council of Spain (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas - CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - UAB). MATGAS was created to advance the research and development of materials and gases, for different applications. www.matgas.org
About Air Products
Air Products (NYSE:APD) provides atmospheric, process and specialty gases; performance materials; equipment; and technology. For over 70 years, the company has enabled customers to become more productive, energy efficient and sustainable. More than 20,000 employees in over 50 countries supply innovative solutions to the energy, environment and emerging markets. Air Products is the world’s largest hydrogen manufacturer and the market leader in hydrogen fuelling stations. The company has built more than 150 SmartFuel® fuelling stations worldwide and we are proud to be at the forefront of developing a hydrogen infrastructure in Europe. For more information, visit
About European Hydrogen Association
The FAST/EHA currently represents 21 national hydrogen and fuel cell organisations and the main European companies active in the hydrogen infrastructure development. The legal entity for the FAST/EHA is FAST (est. 1897), the Italian Federation of Scientific and Technical Associations, an independent non-profit association acknowledged by Decree of the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Scientific Research. FAST represents 34 national scientific and technical associations with around 50.000 members from the industry, research and technology sector.
About Solvay Specialty Polymers Italy
Solvay Specialty Polymers makes more polymers with more performance than any other company in the world. This entity is a leading global producer of innovative materials which consistently surpass the highest standards for sustainability, durability, chemical and temperature resistance, weatherability and transparency. Its high-performance
polymers include fluoropolymers, fluoroelastomers, sulfone polymers, semi-aromatic polyamides and specialty polyethylenes, which fulfill critical requirements of global customers involved in industries such as the Automotive, Aerospace, Chemical, Healthcare, Membranes, Plumbing, Semiconductor, Oil & Gas, Wire & Cable and Alternative Energy ones.
Thanks to its broad portfolio which include more than 30 brands available in over 1,500 formulations, and a powerful combination of technological innovation and close customer collaboration, Solvay Specialty Polymers is committed to providing sustainable solutions that contribute to improving quality of life.
About Politecnico Di Milano
The POLITECNICO DI MILANO is a non-profit national university, which Provides MSc and PhD courses in Energy Engineering with specific contents regarding hydrogen and FCs. It is involved in a European projects related to hydrogen production with membrane steam reforming for feeding fuel cells, fuel cell lifetime investigation, testing small size presurized electrolyzers within activities with partner industries, hydrogen production, and CO2 capture from hydrogen syngas mixtures.
About McPhy Energy SA
McPhy Energy S.A., based near Grenoble, France, develops and manufactures innovative and safe hydrogen technologies. Besides solid-state storage of hydrogen based on Mg metal hydrides, McPhy is consistently expanding activities in on-site generation of hydrogen by means of alkaline water electrolysis. With the acquisition recently of PIEL (Italy) and HyTec Electrolyzer (Germany). McPhy now has a global installed base of over 3000 systems. For three consecutive years, McPhy has been listed in the "Global CleanTech 100" group of companies and is one of the "Top 5 CleanTech France" enterprises. The Group has manufacturing sites in France, Italy and Germany. For more information: .
About SOL S.p.A.
The SOL S.p.a. Group is engaged in production, applied research and distribution activities pertaining to industrial, pure and medicinal gases, in home-care medical business, as well as in the sector for related medical equipment in Italy, presently active in 20 other European countries, in Turkey and in India. The products and services of companies belonging to the Group are used in the chemical, electronics, iron and steel, engineering and foodstuff industries, as well as in sectors such as environmental protection, research and health. The company is involved in several EU projects regarding H2 production, purification, storage and innovative technologies, focused on industrial applications, fuel cells systems and sustainable mobility.
About Ciaotech (PNO)
Technology and innovation consultants with presence in 12 EU nations and technical management experience on tens of EU projects, and a focus on European innovation communities building in various areas such as a.o. security (FP7 SecureForce and OSMOSIS projects), transport (FP7 SMART project), energy (FP7 ORECCA project), including profound experience with on-line community building.Experienced in Mirror Groups creation and management, stakeholders mapping (SPLASH project), analysis, recommendation and roadmapping.
About Eindhoven University of Technology
The research group Chemical Process Intensification (SPI) is part of the faculty of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The main objective of the research group is the development of novel integrated reactor concepts based on improved fundamental knowledge using validated advanced (multi-phase) reactor models. This is achieved by employing a combination of state-of-the-art numerical models (at different levels of detail using the multi-level modelling approach), advanced (non-invasive) experimental techniques and experimental demonstration of novel reactor concepts (proof of concept). For more information, visit .
matgas.org