For several years the Icelandic government has been keen to become the world’s first hydrogen-based economy, replacing traditional fossil fuels with fuel cells. In May 1999 the Icelandic holding company VistOrka hf, Shell Hydrogen, Norsk Hydro, and DaimlerChrysler entered into a joint venture and established Icelandic New Energy Ltd (INE). The first task of INE was to set up a project that would explore the possibilities of hydrogen on the island. This led to the concept of the ECTOS (Ecological City Transport System) project, which was finalized by the end of 2000.
The ECTOS project is centred on a Shell Hydrogen retail filling station that has been installed on an existing Shell forecourt in the city of Reykjavik. The hydrogen for the project will be produced, stored, and distributed at this station. The hydrogen is produced by electrolyzing water using electricity generated from renewable energy. Norsk Hydro supplied the hydrogen fuel plant in which this process takes place.
ESTEEM was used and developed in one of INE’s projects called SMARTH2. SMARTH2 is a demonstration project for hydrogen fuelled vehicles and vessels. The project will test various types of hydrogen-fuelled company cars and other equipment that run on hydrogen, including a hydrogen auxiliary power unit for a tour ship. The project also aims to demonstrate the operation infrastructure for compressed hydrogen and develop the distribution system, for example by organizing and running a small-scale hydrogen transport service.