H2020
Europeo
ExpectedOutcome:The huge leap expected in the evolution of water electrolyser technology can be performed only by reaching significant technical and economic targets. The European Hydrogen strategy targets 6 GW installed electrolyser capacity by 2024 ramping up to 40 GW electrolyser capacity by 2030. To achieve such targets, both products and production processes should undergo a significant enhancement, by means of strong cost reduction program, as well as improved automation and technologies. Such upgrades can be applied to the several steps of manufacturing, starting from the single electrolyser cell to the stack assembly. Therefore, it is necessary that the whole manufacturing chain is involved in this cost reduction/performance improvement of the electrolyser stacks required to produce enough renewable hydrogen to fulfil the EU targets, similarly to the on-going manufacturing development of fuel cells (e.g. slot die coating for Catalyst Coated Membrane, plasma spray, roll-to-roll coaters).
The project should aim to find the best compromise between CAPEX and OPEX[1] costs to minimise the cost of produced hydrogen, also considering the output pressure.
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ExpectedOutcome:The huge leap expected in the evolution of water electrolyser technology can be performed only by reaching significant technical and economic targets. The European Hydrogen strategy targets 6 GW installed electrolyser capacity by 2024 ramping up to 40 GW electrolyser capacity by 2030. To achieve such targets, both products and production processes should undergo a significant enhancement, by means of strong cost reduction program, as well as improved automation and technologies. Such upgrades can be applied to the several steps of manufacturing, starting from the single electrolyser cell to the stack assembly. Therefore, it is necessary that the whole manufacturing chain is involved in this cost reduction/performance improvement of the electrolyser stacks required to produce enough renewable hydrogen to fulfil the EU targets, similarly to the on-going manufacturing development of fuel cells (e.g. slot die coating for Catalyst Coated Membrane, plasma spray, roll-to-roll coaters).
The project should aim to find the best compromise between CAPEX and OPEX[1] costs to minimise the cost of produced hydrogen, also considering the output pressure.
At the end of the project the achievement of the target figures described in detail above should be demonstrated. The outcome should be a novel component(s) or manufacturing process(es) integrated in a demonstrator stack. The scalability of the final demonstrator and the cost targets of hydrogen should be clearly proven with a business plan.
Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:
Improving efficiency by 2-4% LHV compared to the use of the present state of the art solutions;Increase system reliability and significantly reduce manufacturing costs resulting in an overall lower CAPEX and reaching a projected levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) below 3 €/kg assuming 40 €/MWh and 4,000 full load hours operation@, after the scaling up of the foreseen manufacturing techniques;Demonstrate the value of advanced manufacturing techniques to reduce manufacturing times enhancing printing or assembly tolerances versus the state of the art. To address the above-mentioned cost system targets, the project is focusing on stack/components manufacturing and should at least reach the 2024 KPIs stack targets (degradation, current density, limited use of Critical Raw Materials) included in the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA. Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following objectives of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA as summarised below.
AEL Degradation (%/1,000 hrs) 0.11, Current density (A/cm2) 0.7, Use of CRMs as catalysts (Mg/W) 0.3;PEMEL Degradation (%/1,000 hrs) 0.15, Current density (A/cm2) 2.4, Use of CRMs as catalysts (Mg/W) 1.25;AEMEL Degradation (%/1,000 hrs) 0.9, Current density (A/cm2) 0.6, Use of CRMs as catalysts (Mg/W) 0.4;SOEL Degradation (%/1,000 hrs) 1, Current density (A/cm2) 0.85. European R&D institutions and hydrogen-related companies should join their efforts to reach the following targets provided by the system costs Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which have been set for all the major electrolysis processes (Alkaline Electrolysis (AEL), Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis (PEMEL), Solid Oxide Electrolysis (SOEL), Anion Exchange Membrane Electrolysis (AEMEL):
The capital costs per system, calculated on 100MW production volume for a single company, are expected to drop well below 1,000 €/kW for all technologies (AEL capital costs should decrease at least to 480 €/kW, aiming at 400 €/kW; PEMEL capital costs should decrease at least to 700 €/kW, aiming at 500 €/kW; SOEL capital costs should at least be below 1,000 €/kW, aiming at 700 €/kW; AEMEL should aim to 300 €/kW); The operational and maintenance costs (O&M) should also be reduced, by means of an increased reliability of the stack and the application of advanced monitoring systems, i.e. predictive maintenance (AEL O&M costs should decrease at least below 50 €/(kg/d)/yr; PEMEL O&M costs should decrease at least to 30 €/(kg/d)/yr, aiming to 20 €/(kg/d)/yr; SOEL O&M cost should decrease at least to 130 €/(kg/d)/yr, aiming to 45 €/(kg/d)/yr; AEMEL O&M cost should aim to 20 €/(kg/d)/yr).
Scope:Proposals should aim to significant and innovative improvements of the manufacturing processes to achieve the expected KPI targets. The changes can involve both the manufacturing of components of the single unit (e.g. innovative materials and processes) and the assembly of a whole stack (e.g. automation). Integrated quality control and monitoring systems are also included.
The following items are in scope of this topic and should lead to cost reduction and cell/stack reliability improvement. Scalability should be considered for each of the research paths to be followed in the project. The project should consider the re-use and recycling of the electrolysers and their components at their end of life. Proposals should address at least 3 of the topics below:
Alternatives and/or novel processes should be identified, allowing improved conduction coatings with impact on Platinum group metals (PGM) content. Catalysts should be reduced in water electrolysers, since they are both very expensive and CRMs; Exploration of new surface coating technologies and advanced manufacturing processes (e.g., 3D printing) for more efficient mass production, which can allow higher current density and process efficiency; Improvement of manufacturing throughput, feature control, and scale for electrolyser bipolar plates to be coupled with a reduction of the processing cost through cost-effective and mass production-friendly processing techniques, including forming, punching, cleaning, coating and other processes; Reduction of the manufacturing steps and transportation costs required to fabricate porous transport layers/gas diffusion layers;Improvement of the level of automation of the cell stacks assembly thanks to the development of robotics tooling and automated inspection;Test and development of scalable predictive maintenance devices which can greatly reduce the O&M costs of the electrolyser stack;Include process design to leverage the recyclability of the materials at the end of life and the utilisation of recycled materials in novel manufacturing on a circularity approach. Consortia should include at least one electrolyser OEM, one actor from the manufacturing sector and at least one SME.
Consortia are encouraged to consider some of the best practices from the fuel cell manufacturing sector not yet adopted in the electrolyser manufacturing and that could be beneficial to it. In addition, consortia are encouraged to explore synergies and cooperation with Made in Europe partnership (Cluster 7).
Proposals are expected to address sustainability and circularity aspects. In particular, circularity and sustainability by design concepts should be holistically considered towards the whole technology chain.
Activities are expected to start at MRL 4 and achieve MRL 5 by the end of the project.
The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2022 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021–2022 which apply mutatis mutandis.
[1]O&M costs
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