JRC ACTIVITIES IN SUPPORT OF A HYDROGEN-BASED ENERGY SYSTEM

Energy and transport are key prerequisite for the high quality of life enjoyed by developed countries and they are essential ingredients for their economic prosperity. Both also represent a key challenge to sustainability in terms of depletion of resources, competitiveness, safety and security. Europe needs, therefore, to balance its increasing energy demand resulting from an economic growth in EU member states with minimizing its over-dependence on imports and the adverse effects on the environment, the ecosystem, and human well-being.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC), which already had hydrogen-related activities in its project portfolio, as a service of the Commission has embarked in line with its mission, in activities targeting harmonisation and validation of methods and procedures for characterisation, performance and safety assessment of selected components in the hydrogen chain, such as gas sensors, storage methods and media, fuel cells, and of their integration in vehicles. This paper describes the projects executed by the JRC within its work programme at its several institutes distributed throughout Europe. The JRC activities also include a dissemination and training component via the hosting of young researchers and the organisation of dedicated workshops.