Development of eco-design guidelines for FCH products

Topic description

Specific Challenge:

The path towards a well-established hydrogen economy requires the deployment of sustainable FCH systems. Moreover, such an economy should contribute to the circularity concept. Furthermore, considering that the transition to such an economy will require significant investments, it is important that FCH projects are considered sustainable investments, as specific budgets and funds have been dedicated to investments classified as such. Although FCH technologies are already both explicitly and implicitly mentioned in the Taxonomy Technical Report on sustainable investments [85], the acceptance of FCH technologies as sustainable investment would greatly benefit from factual support.

Within this context, it is of paramount importance to screen and develop eco-efficient actions for the (re)design of FCH products (design for excellence, DfX). For instance, actions regarding the use of secondary raw materials in stack components that include critical raw materials should consider not only FCH products’ manufacture but also end-of-life (EoL), paying special attention to the quality of the recovered materials (PGMs, ionomer, carbon, etc.). Hence, a holistic approach needs to be followed in order to propose, screen and prioritise actions that minimise the environmental impact of FCH products along their life cycle from the design phase until EoL, without jeopardising (but promoting) their economic feasibility.

This need for the thorough integration of environmental traits into the design of FCH products calls for the development of tailor-made eco-design guidelines, thereby filling the current gap for this type of reference documentation.

Furthermore, this topic addresses the challenge of generating a scientific basis that facilitates the future standardisation of the manufacture of key FCH products’ components, with emphasis on design solutions that allow an effective implementation of EoL technologies as well as an automatic and non-destructive disassembly of FCH products (design for recycling).

In this sense, according to the EU action plan for the circular economy [86], only high quality recycling can ensure the recovery of critical raw materials and it will be essential to improve the recyclability of electronic devices through product design.

[85] Prepared by the Technical Expert Group on sustainable finance in June 2019 (https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/sustainable-finance-teg-taxonomy_en)

[86] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52015DC0614&from=EN

The objective of this topic is to develop eco-design guidelines that include well-defined solutions for FCH products under the DfX paradigm, where X represents several features such as manufacture, assembly, cost, dismantling, recycling, reuse, etc. Projects proposed under this topic should take into consideration good practices and frameworks from more mature sectors (e.g. catalytic converters at the automotive industry, primary and secondary batteries etc.) as well as the outcomes of the project HyTechCycling (e.g. review on RCS and EoL technologies and strategies) [87].

The focus of this topic should be at least on two key FCH products (PEM fuel cells and electrolysers, alkaline water electrolysers, solid oxide fuel cells…). The integration of the environmental dimension into the design of these FCH products should pursue the minimisation of the current product’s environmental impacts (carbon footprint, energy footprint, abiotic depletion, human toxicity etc.) throughout its whole value chain, conceiving, appraising and prioritising potential actions for its enhancement.

The guidelines should focus on the identification of these actions for the target products, with advances in the product design methodology while integrating environmental aspects in such a way that they can be updated according to future progress in the field of life cycle assessment of FCH systems. The prioritised solutions should be feasible for wide implementation across EU in the medium term, thereby effectively contributing to the eco-design of FCH products. As an additional step within the well-established eco-design methodology, the impact reductions of the eco-designed FCH products should be appraised and benchmarked to check the suitability of the prioritised solutions. According to the focus on the product, the collaboration with industry stakeholders as well as the establishment of an Advisory Board is considered important to both retrieve a complete set of data and propose, screen and prioritise eco-design actions. Since the environmental results should be interpreted in combination with other aspects, especially economic indicators, the use of the standardised methodology of eco-efficiency assessment is recommended. Besides, the project approach should take into account the EU Taxonomy framework [88], as an integral part of sustainable economic development to support economic growth while reducing pressures on the environment and taking into account social and governance aspects.

For a reduced set of prioritised eco-design actions within the guidelines (at least one per FCH product addressed), it should be checked how the different actors involved could benefit from the eco-design process, including EoL recovery and recycling. It is expected that the consortium includes experts in the field of design of FCH products, eco-design, and industry actors relevant to the prioritised eco-design solutions.

The project should contribute towards the activities of Mission Innovation - Hydrogen Innovation Challenge. Cooperation with entities from Hydrogen Innovation Challenge member countries, which are neither EU Member States nor Horizon 2020 Associated countries, is encouraged (see chapter 3.3 for the list of countries eligible for funding, and point G. International Cooperation).

Cross-collaboration with the project to be funded under topic FCH-04-5-2020: Guidelines for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) of fuel cell and hydrogen systems should be sought especially on common approaches to sustainability issues and their impact on future eco-design of products. Furthermore, the extent to which eco-design actions would contribute to FCH products being more comprehensively included in the taxonomy on sustainable investments should be considered.

The FCH 2 JU considers that proposals requesting a contribution of EUR 1 million would allow the specific challenges to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected duration: 3 years.

[87] https://www.fch.europa.eu/page/cross-cutting#HYTECHCYCLING

[88] https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/sustainable-finance-teg-taxonomy_en

The main outcome of the project should be the delivery of eco-design guidelines for FCH products (one eco-design guideline per involved FCH product, with a minimum of 2 guidelines).

Overall, the project should therefore contribute to:

• The availability of eco-design guidelines not only for their straightforward use for the FCH products involved in the project, but also for their supporting use as reference documentation for subsequent protocols and/or standards;
• Developing FCH devices designed to allow their easy dismantling and disassembly;
• Reducing the use of the critical materials listed by the European Commission present in the FCH products involved in the project through substitution, otherwise by resorting to recycling strategies;
• Consolidating FCH products as sustainable energy solutions through increased circularity and sound eco-efficiency reporting of every eco-design action and solution addressed in the project. In this regard, cumulative cost and environmental reductions above 3% and 10% are targeted for the eco-designed products, with eco-efficiency improvements above 10%.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 3.3 of the FCH2 JU 2020 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2018– 2020 which apply mutatis mutandis.

International cooperation