ExpectedOutcome:
The topic aims to develop and demonstrate the technological foundations of large LH2 refuelling stations for the heavy-duty transport sectors such as aviation, maritime and railroad sectors, and thereby address and overcome the challenges that are remaining in their development. The main challenges are the development and demonstration of key equipment at the required scales such as high flowrate liquid hydrogen pumps, the management of higher volume boil-off gas, the lack of safety protocols and overall station integration. Ultimately, this topic aims to facilitate widespread LH2 delivery across each of the identified transportation sectors.
Hydrogen is liquefied by reducing its temperature to -253°C, increasing its volumetric energy density. This enables hydrogen storage in large quantities and its transportation by road or ship from centralised or decentralised production unit to customers, as well as the LH2 on-board storage for direct use in heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks, ships, trains or aircraft.
The HRS is a key stage in the hydrogen value chain as it performs the final delivery of hydrogen in gaseous or liquid form to the vehicle tank. Current projects are already developing hydrogen refuelling stations to store and distribute liquid hydrogen to heavy-duty trucks. However, the challenges of larger LH2 HRS for ships, trains, and aircraft, in terms of flowrate capacities, performance, protocols and working environments (harbour, airport, train depots) are still to be addressed. As maritime, aviation and railroad sectors share similar technological concepts and equipment, this topic aims to demonstrate first their feasibility.
The project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
Project results are expected to contribute to the following objectives and KPIs of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA:
The configuration of a hydrogen refuelling station is primarily defined by the state of hydrogen supplied to the station, either gaseous or liquid, and as supplied to the receiving tank, also gaseous or liquid. Liquid hydrogen refuelling stations are to be understood as refuelling stations storing LH2 while primarily delivering LH2, for instance to increase HRS efficiency. Liquid hydrogen refuelling stations are essentially composed of the following sub-systems:
There are currently a number of challenges associated with the scale-up of large liquid hydrogen refuelling stations for the delivery of low-cost liquid hydrogen:
The scope of this topic is to develop, build and operate a liquid hydrogen refuelling station that should demonstrate a delivery flowrate of at least 5 tonnes per hour. The LH2 HRS should demonstrate a potential for scaling-up with technical and economic improvements. The LH2 HRS should be capable of reducing the energy consumption and specific cost of hydrogen to prepare for the wide scale deployment of hydrogen for the benefit of heavy-duty transport and its ecosystem with zero emissions. The demonstration of a high-performance large hydrogen refuelling station would impact other SRIA roadmaps related to liquid hydrogen (transportation, storage, end-usage as aviation, etc).
The following activities should be within the scope of this topic:
Optionally, the demonstration may include the dual usage or the repurposing of LNG import terminals.
Proposals are expected to explore synergies with the topic included in Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2024 HORIZON-CL5-2023-D5-01-07: ‘Hydrogen-powered aviation’ and with the activities of ZEWT partnership.
Applicants are encouraged to address sustainability and circularity aspects in the activities proposed.
This topic is expected to contribute to EU competitiveness and industrial leadership by supporting a European value chain for hydrogen and fuel cell systems and components.
Proposals should provide a preliminary draft on ‘hydrogen safety planning and management’ at the project level, which will be further updated during project implementation.
Activities are expected to start at TRL 4 and achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.
The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 5.00 million – proposals requesting Clean Hydrogen JU contributions above this amount will not be evaluated.
At least one partner in the consortium must be a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research.
Purchases of equipment, infrastructure or other assets used for the action must be declared as depreciation costs. However, for the following equipment, infrastructure or other assets purchased specifically for the action (or developed as part of the action tasks): HRS and related components, costs may exceptionally be declared as full capitalised costs.
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 4 and achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.
[1]https://www.euramet.org/european-metrology-networks
[2]https://www.euramet.org/european-metrology-networks/energy-gases/activities-impact/projects/project-details/project/metrology-infrastructure-for-high-pressure-gas-and-liquified-hydrogen-flows