Development and validation of existing and novel recycling technologies for key FCH products

Topic description

Specific Challenge:

Previous research initiatives, such as HyTechCycling project [89],[90] have identified the current absence of viable and up-scalable recycling technologies for fuel cells products as a possible bottleneck to future mass deployment of the technology. The recovery and reuse of these and other materials can contribute to reducing the overall system costs. On top of that, critical raw materials can also represent bottlenecks in the supply chains due to low availability. This is valid in first instance for the platinum group metals (PGM) used as electro-catalysts in the fuel cell and electrolyser stack, but also for the raw earth metals of the high temperature stacks. Additional potentially critical materials can be identified in the ionomer used in the membrane and the printed circuit boards used in the balance-of-plant components.

On top of these economic consideration, and even more importantly, the sustainability aspects of the whole value chains has to be considered. Since a major increment of fuel cells and hydrogen devices is expected in the next few years (20-40 GW of electrolysis together with about 10,000 units of FCs are expected to be installed in EU by 2030), suitable recycling technologies have to be available to enable the development of a hydrogen circular economy.

There is currently no process to recycle some key components of FCH devices (e.g. the materials of solid oxide devices, PGM of electrolysers), while for other devices available recovery processes already used in other sectors need important modifications to be applied to fuel cells technologies (e.g. the recovery of Pt from catalytic converters). Therefore, the design and development of suitable end of life strategies and recycling technologies should be addressed.

[89] HyTechCycling, Grant No. 700190, D 2.2 – Existing end-of-life technologies applicable to FCH products, 2016

[90] HyTechCycling, Grant No. 700190, D 3.1 – New end of life technologies applicable to FCH products, 2018

The overall objective of this topic is to develop and validate materials recovery and recycling technologies for key FCH products in order to reduce the costs of FCH devices, optimise the recovery of critical materials and facilitate a well-established hydrogen economy.

To this end, various physical, chemical and thermal processes should be identified, assessed and ranked to optimise the overall materials recovery. A whole Life Cycle approach needs to be undertaken in order to truly characterise the Life cycle Sustainability Impact of the proposed solutions. This should initially be studied on an environmental (LCA) and later on an economic (LCC) basis. In addition, quality analysis methods for secondary product (material) should be recommended at the end of the recovery process, aiming at labelling the recovered material suitable to be (1) reused in a new FCH product with a similar value to the original one (closed-loop recycling) or (2) reused in another sector requiring lower-value applications (open-loop recycling).

The proposal should address at least the following objectives:

• Adaptation and validation in a relevant environment of processes already existing in conventional recycling and recovery centres to make them suitable to fuel cell and hydrogen commercial systems, including key materials such as the PGMs;
• Selection and validation in a relevant environment of at least two novel recycling techniques for key materials contained in to fuel cell and hydrogen commercial products, such as PEMFC/PEMWE, AWE and SOFC; the focus should be on the recovery of precious metals used in the stacks as catalysts, pre-costumer scraps etc.;
• Validation of the suitability of the material(s) recovered for their reintroduction in the supply chain of different FCH systems and/or different industrial sectors. The validation should include the testing of secondary raw materials in a laboratory-scale environment to demonstrate the absence of impact in the performance of the FCH system using the recovered material, while ensuring the quality standards of industry in open and/or close-loops recycling applications;
• A comprehensive environmental-economic analysis of the considered strategy should be undertaken, to examine the potential for its widespread implementation in EU across the period 2025-2050. Analysing/proposing B2B recycling arrangements for each PGM and other critical raw materials, and the efficiency of recovery of each for a few subcategories of FC application and electrolyser application is suggested.

The processes developed shall aim at the following targets: manufacturing of new stacks should include min. 30% of recycled critical raw materials, 95% of Pt and 70% of ionomer, recovered over all potential streams (pre-customer scraps and and-of-life products).

It is expected that OEMs relevant to the selected technologies will be part of the proposal, to guarantee the required industrial know-how and to provide the real-life aged components and samples necessary to validate the recovery and recycling process. The proposal should also involve recovery and recycling companies and experts in the field of feasibility assessment from a life-cycle perspective, and the consortium should include industrial companies capable of scaling up the outcomes of the proposal.

To demonstrate the reproducibility of the methodology, a minimum of two recycling processes for 2 different FCH products’ materials should be validated in the relevant environment. Technical training focused on recycling and dismantling FCH technologies should be developed and provided to the recycling company. The teaching material should be made publicly available.

The validation of the recovery and recycling process should be carried in an operational environment and in coordination and agreement with the EU recycling community, to assess and confirm its robustness.

TRL at start of the project: 3 and TRL at the end of the project: 5.

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).

Any safety-related event that may occur during execution of the project shall be reported to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) dedicated mailbox JRC-PTT-H2SAFETY@ec.europa.eu , which manages the European hydrogen safety reference database, HIAD and the Hydrogen Event and Lessons LEarNed database, HELLEN.

The FCH 2 JU considers that proposals requesting a contribution of EUR 1.5 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.

The expected impacts are:

• Development and optimisation of a recovery and recycling processes as critical component of a circular economy approach to the whole to fuel cell and hydrogen technology chain;
• These processes can act as basis for further development to other products;
• Reduction of the overall costs of fuel cells and hydrogen products;
• Reduction of EU dependences on critical raw materials.

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