The magazine of the european research area European Commission Copenhagen, a missed chance?

TRANSPORT

Mini-glossary

Biofuel: an alternative fuel produced from living 

plant matter.

Bioethanol: ethanol obtained from the fermenta-

tion of living plant matter. Ethanol is found in all 

alcoholic drinks.

Inorganic acid: an acid that contains no carbon.

 

   NEMO

 

 18 partners – 9 countries  

(BE-CH-DE-FI-FR-IT-NL-SI-SE)

  

www.vtt.fi/news/?lang=en

The Joint Technology 

Initiative on fuel cells 

and hydrogen  

E

urope is also exploring other avenues 

than biofuels to obtain renewable energy. 

One of these is fuel cells and the technolo-

gies that produce energy from hydrogen, 

the subject of the new Joint Technology Initia-

tive (JTI) Fuel Cells and Hydrogen or FCH – a part-

nership between the European Commission, 

private companies and a number of universities 

and research institutes.   

Here too, the aim is to combat carbon dioxide 

emissions and reduce Europe’s dependency 

on hydrocarbons while at the same time contrib-

uting to economic growth. The advantage of 

such a JTI is that it brings together all the players 

and their resources as part of a common effort. 

The technologies needed to disseminate fuel 

cells, for example, are not yet commercially 

mature and cannot be easily developed by 

a  single player. The FCH JTI launched its first 

call for proposals in 2008, with the Commission 

contributing EUR 28 million. A second call for 

proposals closed on 15 October 2009, with 

a budget of EUR 70 million. The projects pro-

posed are currently being assessed.