Recently inland shipping powered by hydrogen on the EU Rhine Alpine TEN T corridor between Rotterdam and Genova (IT), took a significant step forward. The RH2INE initiative, in close cooperation with the regions of Zuid Holland and Nordrhein-Westfalen, with the support of the ports of Rotterdam, Duisburg en RheinCargo, has been awarded co-funding of the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). This EU contribution together with the financial support of the two regions and the three ports, will be used to develop the framework and technical scenario’s as a solid basis for the deployment of hydrogen powered ships and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure along Europe’s main trade corridors in the coming years. The Commission’s evaluation stated that the proposal was of excellent quality and addressing key issues at the right moment to support EU’s climate ambitions for transport.
The ambition is to set sail with at least 10 hydrogen ships by 2024 between the inland shipping routes between the ports of Rotterdam and Duisburg, serviced by three hydrogen bunkering locations. By integrating the full value chain from the clean production of hydrogen, efficient distribution, innovative ship and heavy and light duty truck building, to the actual shippers and haulers and their clients, RH2INE seeks to twin the greening of Europe’s transport corridors to maintaining a resilient national and regional transport and logistics industry.
“Hydrogen is an intrinsic part of the future economy and one of the clean solutions for heavy-duty, long-distance transport.” said Zuid-Holland’ deputy for Mobility, Floor Vermeulen. “To achieve this, you need each other and I’m proud of the variety of stakeholders who have joined this initiative. From production, distribution to customer. We see this funding as a confirmation of the EU Commission that we are on the right track. It is also fully in line with our ambition to balance transport with liveable communities.
“We are very happy with the positive decision to support cross-border promotion of hydrogen technology. This confirms the RH2INE Programme as a positive way to steer the transport of goods into a more climate friendly direction”, says minister Andreas Pinkwart of Innovation and Energy in Nordrhein-Westfalen. The hydrogen market of the future will have to be internationally connected. Nordrhein-Westfalen is taking this into account in close collaboration with the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland”.
On January 29, 2020 the Dutch province Zuid-Holland, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dutch province of Gelderland and the harbours; Port of Duisburg, Port of Rotterdam and RheinCargo and the (private) organisations; Nouryon, Air Products, Future Proof Shipping, SDS, NPRC, Koedood, BCTN and EICB joined forces in the RH2INE initiative to implement a carbon free Rhine-Alpine corridor. It is an open access platform and other parties can join the initiative by providing added value to the existing consortium partners. We will develop the first European hydrogen corridor that has the right conditions and necessary infrastructure for the use of hydrogen as a propulsion fuel.
Following the EU Green Deal objective of creating synergies between the new clean energy networks and transport corridors the Rhine Hydrogen Integration Network of Excellence (RH2INE) is an initiative of the province Zuid-Holland and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia that will build on the first synergy project TSO2020 , that the EHA set up in 2017. The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management who has spearheaded the Synergy topic in cooperation with the EU Commission supported this initiative from the beginning. The ambition is to develop an integrated system of hydrogen in transport on the Rhine-Alpine Corridor in inland shipping, road haulage and other forms of transport. RH2INE seeks intense and concrete collaboration with the other European transport corridors and furthermore want to challenge them with ambitions targets:
Goals 2024
Ambition 2030
