The Institute of Power Engineering - National Research Institute, together with 16 consortium partners, has been awarded funding for the HySPARK project. The international consortium, whose members come from 5 countries, will be responsible for creating a replicable hydrogen ecosystem based on zero-emission solutions to decarbonise transport.
The HySPARK project (Hydrogen Solutions for euroPean Airports & Regional Kinetics), financed by the European Commission's Clean Hydrogen Partnership programme with a budget of about EUR 9 million, is the first project in Poland dedicated to hydrogen valleys, financed by this programme.
The IPE-NRI will be responsible for coordinating the project in the administrative area and for research and development work, which will be carried out jointly with the Warsaw University of Technology, RINA and Bureau Veritas Polska. Work in the business area will be coordinated and carried out by Orlen S.A.
The project, initiated by members of the Mazovian Hydrogen Valley, aims to build a full hydrogen value chain in central Poland. As part of the HySPARK project, innovative vehicles powered by hydrogen supplied by Orlen S.A. will be produced and operated. A hydrogen refuelling station will be located in the vicinity of Warsaw Chopin Airport, the construction of which will be co-financed by CEF AFIF funds. Hydrogen buses will be supplied by ARTHUR BUS, hydrogen tractors by Quantron and ground handling trucks for Chopin Airport by the Italian company ATENA.
HySPARK is a unique project that brings together the key competences necessary to achieve the objectives of the Polish Hydrogen Strategy. The activities of the consortium, including the broad involvement of entities associated in the Mazovian Hydrogen Valley, will make a real contribution to the decarbonisation of transport, and the results of the project will be a model solution intended for replication in other urban agglomerations. The use of the results of the project for the construction of hydrogen ecosystems around other European airports was planned already at the stage of creating the application for funding, adds Professor Jakub Kupecki, Director of the Institute of Power Engineering - National Research Institute, coordinator of the project.