19 October 2023
Virya’s hydrogen taxi pilot project completed: more infrastructure needed
After a one-year pilot project, Virya Energy and Taxis Verts have concluded that hydrogen gas (H2) can be used as a fuel for taxis and other cars without any problems. The emission-free technology could provide a golden mean between combustion engines and electric vehicles in the future, it sounds.
In total, the hydrogen taxi covered more than 55,000 kilometres and transported more than 2,700 passengers to their destinations. To do so, the taxi used some 660 kilos of hydrogen, produced locally from renewable electricity and distributed via DATS24 (Discount Automatic Tanking Service, ed.) stations. No CO2 was emitted in the process: to produce energy, hydrogen mixes with oxygen and produces only H₂O, or water. By comparison, a diesel vehicle would have emitted about 11 tonnes of CO2 over the same distance.
The results of the pilot project are mostly positive, but to enable the deployment of hydrogen vehicles, the hydrogen mobility infrastructure needs to be further developed. Today, there are only seven hydrogen stations in Belgium, including five in the DATS24 network, all outside Brussels. The pilot project's hydrogen taxi refuelled at a filling station in Halle during the pilot project.