October 2004

E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version

WASHINGTON, DC - Stepped-up international cooperation, high- and low-temperature hydrogen production processes, industrial and non-energy uses of hydrogen are on the agenda for the next five years of the International Energy Agency’s Hydrogen Implementing Agreement (HIA).

Marking the Agreement’s 25th anniversary, representatives from HIA, the Agency (IEA) and the U.S. Energy Department described these and other efforts, organized in 19 so-called Annexes, in HIA’s 137-page anniversary report, “In Pursuit of the Future,” at a press conference here early last month. Already approved are continuing, broader efforts on photo-electrochemical and photo-biological hydrogen production, and work will continue on hydrogen production from carbonaceous materials(Annex 16), storage materials (Annex 17) and integrated systems and sources (Annex 18). Annex 19, safety, is still in the planning stage.

Started in 1977, HIA has 14 countries plus the European Commission, as members. Another seven countries are observers. Notably absent from full participation is Germany which in the 1970s and 1980s was in the forefront of international hydrogen R&D. Since its inception, HIA “has made significant progress in long-term, pre-competitive R&D,” said HIA chairman Trygve Riis, of the Norwegian Research Council.

One major achievement: creation of the most comprehensive data base for storage materials, the Hydride Information Center (www.hydpark.ca.sandia.gov), for both liquid and solid state storage materials.

Dr. Giorgio Simbolotti, IEA’s principal administrator, told the press conference that it’s not only hydrogen r&d that needs support - “no single technology or policy can do it all,” said one of his slides - but together with fuel cells, it represents a clean, flexible technology for many uses: electricity, transport, residential, industry. The report and HIA’s achievements “send positive signals about the high potential of hydrogen technology and the effectiveness of international cooperation.”

DoE’s Hydrogen Program Manager Steven G. Chalk singled out photo-electrochemical water-splitting at 16% efficiency and 5% hydrogen storage by weight at 150 deg. C as among “a number of significant achievements” by HIA.

Contact: Mary-Rose de Valladares, HIA Secretariat, 301/530-6591; mrsenter@comcast.net. The report is available at www.ieahia.org.