HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2022

ExpectedOutcome : Hydrogen is stored, transported or used pressurised with variable pressures depending on user cases, e.g., between 7 and 70 bar for various industrial applications and grid injection, up to 200 bar for filling gas cylinders, as well as up to 350 and 700 bar in refuelling stations. Hydrogen compression requires energy, which negatively affects overall process efficiency and hydrogen molecule final cost. Pressurised electrolysis therefore has the potential to provide an efficient solution for delivery of pressurised hydrogen at reduced cost. It also enables a low emissions form of hydrogen production, including down to zero emissions if powered solely by renewables. It is expected that this topic will provide breakthrough and game changing technologies for energy efficient pressurised hydrogen production using Proton Conducting Ceramic Electrolysis (PCCEL) and contributing to the overall objective of the SRIA of the Clean Hydrogen JU, namely the hydrogen production cost of 3 €/kg by 2030. The project outcomes will pave the way for the deployment of pressurised hydrogen production units based on proton conducting electrolyte to accelerate uptake in one or more applications (for example: injection into the gas grid, onsite production at HRS, feedstock for industry, such as steel plants, refineries, chemical plants). The project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Contributions to demonstration on stack level for a pressurised steam electrolysis solutions by 2025; Contributing to European leadership for renewable hydrogen production based on PCCEL; Solutions for pressurised hydrogen production will open new target applications (e.g. gas grid injection, HRS) contributing to defining user cases and showing the applications and benefits of the novel technologies Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following objectives of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA: Reduction of CAPEX 2,000 €/(kg/d) and OPEX 130 €/(kg/d)/y (of the overall system costs when also taking into account compression. Ensure circularity by design for materials and for production processes, minimising the life-cycle environmental footprint of electrolysers; Achieving a current density of 0.5 A/cm2; Achieving a pressure at stack level of at least 5 bar; Faradaic efficiency above 90% at operational pressure and temperature. Scope : For High Temperature Steam Electrolysis (HTSE), the Protonic Conducting Ceramic Electrolysis (PCCEL) operating at 500-700 °C can be a promising solution. PCCEL technology has emerged over the past decade with strong development in materials and cells research, while activities towards stack and system development have been marginal. There have been previous FCH JU projects dedicated to pressurised HTSE at small scale for PCCEL. For instance, pressurised PCCEL electrolysis cells with tubular geometry are showing high Faradaic efficiency (> 90%) and stable performance at 600°C up to 3 bar. These previous activities highlighted the needs for more research efforts directed to the optimisation of components, cells and stacks to improve current density and stability in pressurised operation for both technologies. Furthermore, additional efforts should focus on system integration and on defining optimal boundary operations for dedicated user cases in order to maximise the efficiency of the integrated scenarios (e.g. taking into account thermal integration and possible side stream products). This opens for the development of novel and/or improved systems concepts, where the benefits of pressurised electrolysis should be leveraged for deployment in large-scale centralised systems with economies of scale, hydrogen distribution to end uses, as well as distributed systems located at demand centres. Proposals for this topic should set out a credible pathway to contribute to the development and validation of pressurised PCCEL with technological breakthroughs aiming at designing and o