Herten, October 17, 2007. In September, the road show of the EU project HYCHAIN-MINITRANS started with the signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding" of the participating political regional representatives from Germany, France, Italy and Spain in Herten. There is a TV report about this, the link of which is below.
HYCHAIN-MINITRANS is one of the lead projects of the EU and the EnergyAgency NRW in the field of fuel cells and hydrogen. In addition to the four regions, 25 companies and institutions are involved. The project is led by Air Liquide France. HYCHAIN-MINITRANS comprises a fleet of 158 vehicles, including 40 three-wheeled cargo bicycles from Masterflex Brennstoffzellentechnik GmbH, a subsidiary of Masterflex AG. The project is intended to contribute to the successful market launch of fuel cell technology and make an important contribution to reducing air pollution caused by traffic.
In the memorandum, it was agreed that the four regions would like to go beyond "HYCHAIN-MINITRANS" and develop and promote joint projects in the use of environmentally friendly hydrogen. The total budget of the five-year project is around 38 million euros. The EU is supporting "HYCHAIN-MINITRANS" with 17 million euros. The remaining 21 million euros are being contributed by the participating companies and institutions. The NRW partners' share of the budget is 8.4 million euros, of which 4 million euros is funding.
The next stop will be the region of Castilla y Léon (Spain) from October 24 to 26, 2007, followed by the regions of Rhônes-Alpes (France) and Emilia Romagna (Italy).