Availability of renewable energy, at present, is scarce on the European continent. Wind and solar power are still being developed and in the future of these two can easily provide Europe with far larger share of the total energy needed than the current proportion indicates. Still there are European locations that have high potential of producing clean renewable power, countries like Norway and Sweden produce large proportions of their power from renewable sources. Iceland, where all the electric power comes from renewable sources (hydro- and geothermal power), has utilized around 14% of its availalbe power (after evaluating environmental aspects).

Hydrogen made with renewable power from water is not available in large quantities on the continent of Europe. With the increasing interest of using hydrogen for transport and other applications there may arise a new market for imported hydrogen. Hydrogen has mostly been made by reforming of natural gas and by electrolysis of water. Producing hydrogen from natural gas is not emission free, is as long as the electricity is derived from CO₂ free power as in Icland.This  project outlines the feasibility of exporting  hydrogen from Iceland to the European continent.

The EURO-HYPORT objectives
The objective of the EURO-HYPORT project was to examine the feasibility of exporting hydrogen from Iceland to the European continent.  There are few main goals that need to be investigated for such feasibility:  

1. Hydrogen production
   1. This includes production methods in Iceland (cost, emissions and other factors), form of hydrogen (liquid, gaseous, etc.) and efficiency of hydrogen production.
2. Transport of hydrogen.
   1. Transport cost and method will largely depend on the form of hydrogen (liquid, etc.) and also on the quantity of hydrogen. Different containers/tankers will be investigated and marine regulations (standards/codes) will be examined through the European Integrated Hydrogen Project Phase II (EIHPII), also knowledge from the ISO – technical committee 197 – which is examining hydrogen and hydrogen components will be used.
   2. This will also include investigation of a submarine pipeline from Iceland to the continent (for gaseous hydrogen) and/or a electric submarine cable investigating production of hydrogen via electrolysers in Europe using renewable power from Iceland.
3. The receiving end.
   1. Infrastructure at the receiving end is of high importance. There are different options depending on form of hydrogen (see 1 above). Cost/benefit of such different infrastructure will be investigated as that will give indications of what method of delivery is the most feasible.
   2. Market potential and end users of hydrogen will also be included in the study. This includes ways and cost of distribution . Also here a brief evaluation will be given to the concept of who will benefit from the global CO₂ reduction, i.e. is it the consumer, the “green hydrogen” producer, the manufacturer of equipment using hydrogen, etc.
4. Infrastructure cost for the modern society.
   1. Full scale hydrogen introduction into a modern society. Here Iceland will be used as a case study. This is a full scale indication of what would be the expected cost/benefit of the new infrastructure for a whole society, that is from fossil fuels to hydrogen. Different scenarios will be investigated; gaseous hydrogen and liquid hydrogen. These two candidates are the most likely to succeed in the near future. This includes the infrastructure for all transport applications including marine applications (fishing boats, ferries etc.). The task of roughly projecting the findings from Iceland to a European scenario could be done in future projects, however hints of how to adopt the infrastructure to the continent will be established.
5. Raising public awareness
   1. Public awareness of this new hydrogen technology is not well established. Introduction material to the key aspects of the hydrogen future will therefore be produced in a modern fashion. A 3D-cdrom disk will be produced showing in graphical ways (with verbal description using key European languages) the cycle of producing hydrogen, the distribution and the use of hydrogen. This will also include the emission from using hydrogen instead of the fossil fuels. This graphical version will then be put on the web sites of the projects partners and also on the Cordis (EC web site).

The outcome of the project will be a study on the “Feasibility of exporting hydrogen from Iceland to the European continent and infrastructural cost of implementing hydrogen to the modern society”. Three scales will be used for measuring the feasibility of the export:

1. Small scale (demonstration): < 2.000 tons of hydrogen annually
2. Medium scale: 20.000 tons of hydrogen annually
3. Large scale: >200.000 tons of hydrogen annually

The project is a major part of a joint European effort to evaluate aspects of the transition from the conventional fuel system to hydrogen powered transport system. The conclusions will be valuable for the European continent as it will add to the discussions of using renewable power to power the transport system of the future, and a step forward for Europe regarding the overall emission and fulfilling the goal of the Kyoto-protocol.

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In 2004 the Euro Hyport project came to an end. The deliverables were three reports and an educational disc about the production and usage of hydrogen. Only in 2007 was one subtask published as an article in an international journal. Enjoy the strategic selection of places for large production of hydrogen for export from Iceland, based on Mr Hjalti Pall Ingolfsson study. It appeared in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. The co-authors are the Hjalti's tutor at the University of Iceland.