In October 2016, the European project called FCH Train (short for training for technicians of fuel cell and hydrogen vehicles) was initiated, with the aim to develop a training course for technicians of FCH vehicles.

On May 17 and 18, the partners behind the project were once again gathered as the second FCH Train partner meeting took place in Aberdeen, Scotland. The meeting was hosted at Aberdeen City Council, who is one of the partners in the project along with Ballard Europe, Van Hool, Mercantec and Hydrogen Valley/CEMTEC.

The two days included an update on project progress, along with a planning of the next steps of the project.

With valuable input from partners, Mercantec is developing the content of the training course for the FCH technicians. At this partner meeting Mercantec presented the first descriptions of the curriculum content which is well underway. When the content and extent of the new training course is determined, it will firstly be tested in Denmark at the Auto Technical Center (ATC), which is part of Mercantec.

Following this, the training course will be accredited and implemented in the public educational system in Denmark and Scotland, as the first European countries to offer basic education in fuel cells and hydrogen vehicles.

Besides the project meetings the consortium visited the two hydrogen refuelling stations, Cove and Kittybrewster, both located in Aberdeen. The Cove station, produces hydrogen through water electrolysis, compression, storage and cooling to enable fast refuelling of cars at 700 bar and vans at 350 bar. The Kittybrewster station is the first fully integrated hydrogen production and bus refuelling station in Scotland. The station has 3 electrolysers to produce hydrogen on site, which at 350 bar fuels the fleet of 10 hydrogen fuel cell buses in Aberdeen.

In continuation of the visit to the Kittybrewster station, the project partners also visited the converted workshop for the FCH buses which is located next to the refuelling station. Here the 10 FCH buses and 18 cars and vans are being serviced when needed.

Lastly, the consortium was fortunate to visit the North East Scotland College and get an insight into how they are conducting their training of technicians. The visit provided valuable input into the built up of the course as well as future collaboration going forward in the FCH Train project.

The FCH Train project is funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

Read more about the project in the first press release here.