ExpectedOutcome:
Large scale sustainable hydrogen production is necessary to implement hydrogen as an energy vector in a future decarbonised economy. High temperature electrolysers based on solid oxide cells, so-called SOEL, offer the highest electrical efficiency among competing electrolyser technologies, but their capital expenditure (CAPEX) and degradation rates remain higher than AEL and PEMEL. In addition, their capability to operate under dynamic conditions of variable load and rapid start up, as required for direct coupling with renewable and intermittent energy sources, is more limited due to the brittleness and thermal inertia of ceramic components.
The outcome of this topic will be an innovative low-cost and compact cell and stack concept that can be operated at intermediate temperatures (up to<700oC), enabling dynamic operations (i.e. variable load and rapid start and stop) and longer lifetime for energy efficient hydrogen production, therefore contributing to the overall objectives of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA to reduce hydrogen production cost to 3 €/kg by 2030.
Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:
Project results are expected to contribute to the following objectives and KPIs of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA:
The topic focuses on the development of new cell and stack designs, aiming at the replacement of costly ceramic-based components and reduction of critical raw materials (e.g. light and heavy rare earth materials, LREE and HREE)[1], and use of lower cost steels. Improved thermal and load cycling capabilities (faster and higher number of thermal cycles) should be ensured by designing new cells and/or stacks based on e.g. metal supported cells/stacks, cells with integrated interconnect/current collector/electrode and/or metal-based monolith cells/stacks and/or intrinsically more robust cell/stack design/assembly. The stack volume should be reduced compared to state-of-the-art stacks, by 15%. This can be sought by nano-engineering and/or self-assembly of interfaces, integrating several functionalities in single components and/or by developing thinner layers that can also contribute to reduce ohmic losses.
The new sustainable-by-design electrolysers will operate at temperature below 700°C to minimise thermally induced degradation and facilitate direct coupling with renewable sources (heat and steam) from e.g., geothermal plants or solar power plants, with efficient thermal management.
Proposals should address the following:
Proposals are expected to address sustainability aspects by reducing the use of critical raw materials compared to state-of-art cells and/or stacks and/or their recycling.
Consortia are expected to build on the expertise from the EU research and industrial community to ensure broad impact by addressing several of the aforementioned items.
Proposals should demonstrate how they go beyond the ambition of previous EU supported projects such as METSAPP[2], METSOFC[3], RAMSES[4] and NEWSOC[5] and be complementary to them.
Proposals are expected to collaborate and explore synergies with the projects supported under topics HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2023 -07-02: ‘Increasing the lifetime of electrolyser stacks’ and HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2022-07-01: ‘Addressing the sustainability and criticality of electrolyser and fuel cell materials’.
Activities developing test protocols and procedures for the performance and durability assessment of electrolysers and fuel cell components proposals should foresee a collaboration mechanism with JRC (see section 2.2.4.3 "Collaboration with JRC"), in order to support EU-wide harmonisation. Test activities should adopt the already published EU harmonised testing protocols[6] to benchmark performance and quantify progress at programme level.
Activities are expected to start at TRL 2 and achieve TRL 4 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.
The JU estimates that an EU contribution of maximum EUR 3.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately
The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2023 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023–2024 which apply mutatis mutandis.
Specific Topic Conditions:Activities are expected to start at TRL 2 and achieve TRL 4 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.
[1]https://www.crmalliance.eu/hrees
[2]https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/278257
[3]https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/211940
[4]https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/256768
[5]https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/874577
[6]https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/knowledge-management/collaboration-jrc-0_en