Expected Outcome:According to IEA’s Global Hydrogen Review 2023[1], the global hydrogen production in 2022 was dominated by the use of fossil fuels while low-emission hydrogen production was less than 0.7% of the global production. A large number of low-emission hydrogen production projects are under development with projected annual production of up to 38 Mt by 2030. Among these, electrolysers projects dominate and aim at reaching 70% of low-emission hydrogen production. Particularly, Europe announced to account almost 30% of such electrolytic hydrogen projects by 2030 and is focused on projects boosting the supply of low-carbon and renewable hydrogen.

Given hydrogen's potential as a clean energy vector and chemical feedstock, and its applicability across various sectors including transportation, industry, and integration of renewables in the power grid, optimising the efficiency and longevity of electrolysers is of paramount importance. This necessity gives rise to the significance of this topic, aimed at developing advanced materials and/or components for the stack and BoP (Balance of Plant), by understanding and mitigating the degradation mechanisms of low tem... ver más

Expected Outcome:According to IEA’s Global Hydrogen Review 2023[1], the global hydrogen production in 2022 was dominated by the use of fossil fuels while low-emission hydrogen production was less than 0.7% of the global production. A large number of low-emission hydrogen production projects are under development with projected annual production of up to 38 Mt by 2030. Among these, electrolysers projects dominate and aim at reaching 70% of low-emission hydrogen production. Particularly, Europe announced to account almost 30% of such electrolytic hydrogen projects by 2030 and is focused on projects boosting the supply of low-carbon and renewable hydrogen.

Given hydrogen's potential as a clean energy vector and chemical feedstock, and its applicability across various sectors including transportation, industry, and integration of renewables in the power grid, optimising the efficiency and longevity of electrolysers is of paramount importance. This necessity gives rise to the significance of this topic, aimed at developing advanced materials and/or components for the stack and BoP (Balance of Plant), by understanding and mitigating the degradation mechanisms of low temperature electrolyser components, while at the same time further improving their performance and reducing their reliance on critical raw materials (CRM). By focusing on the development and integration of advanced materials in stack, and BoP components that don’t induce degradation or reliability issues or even mitigate degradation, proposals are expected to make a substantial contribution to prolong the lifetime of low temperature electrolysers and demonstrate cost reduction.

Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

Development of advanced cell, stack, and BoP components, including functional and structural materials exhibiting an improved performance and engineered to counteract degradation mechanisms;Increasing the lifetime of electrolysers;Innovations that reduce the need for CRM and/or Platinum Group Metals (PGM);Improved circularity of materials and components;Increase understanding of relevant degradation mechanisms of materials and/or components and demonstrating effective mitigation using developed materials and/or components. The topic is expected to contribute to the following objectives of the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA):

Reduce the OPEX (operational expenditures) of low-temperature electrolysers by prolonging the lifetime, reducing the efficiency loss over time, and/or reduce the maintenance costs.Reduce the CAPEX (capital expenditures) of low-temperature electrolysers, for example, by using less CRM and/or PGM for materials and components.Improving dynamic operation and efficiency, with high durability and reliability, especially when operating dynamically and integrated with renewables. The project results are expected to contribute to the 2030 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of the SRIA:

Alkaline Electrolysis (AEL) Degradation: 0.10 %/1000 hPerformance: 1.0 A/cm2 at 48 kWh/kg efficiency (system level)CAPEX: 800 €/(kg/d)OPEX: 35 €/(kg/d)/yCritical raw materials as catalyst: 0 mg/W Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis (PEMEL) Degradation: 0.12 %/1000 hPerformance: 3.0 A/cm2 at 48 kWh/kg efficiency (system level)CAPEX: 1000 €/(kg/d)OPEX: 21 €/(kg/d)/yCritical raw materials as catalyst :0.25 mg/W Anion Exchange Membrane Electrolysis (AEMEL) Degradation: 0.5 %/1000 hPerformance: 1.5 A/cm2 at 48 kWh/kg efficiency (system level)CAPEX: 600 €/(kg/d)OPEX: 21 €/(kg/d)/yCritical raw materials as catalyst :0 mg/W In addition: at system level the following SRIA KPIs are relevant:

Hot idle ramp time: AEL: 10 secondsPEMEL: 1 secondAEMEL: 5 seconds Cold start ramp time: AEL: 300 secondsPEMEL: 10 secondsAEMEL: 150 seconds Scope:The scope of the topic is to address the lifetime, performance and cost of low temperature electrolysers at system level by developing, designing and testing advanced functional and structural materials and/or components for the cell, stack, and BoP.

The topic seeks to enhance the performance and durability of low temperature electrolysers by addressing not only the inherent degradation of the cell/stack itself but also the degradation that might occur on the stack due to interactions with BoP components. For instance, issues such as corrosion and leaching out of ions from piping that can contaminate the feed water, or ripple effects and electrical failures from power converters that can significantly shorten the stack's operational life.

The main objective is to develop advanced cell and stack materials and BoP components that don’t induce degradation or reliability issues or even mitigate degradation and improve overall system durability.

The proposals should address the following elements:

Investigate and further develop advanced materials for cell, stack, and BoP components to further increase performance and extend the lifetime of low temperature electrolysers;Optimise BoP components and architectures to minimise their impact on stack degradation and improve overall system performances and lifetime; also taking care of footprint of those elements in the view of designing future GW size plants;Validate novel solutions in relevant testing conditions to demonstrate their effectiveness in improving the lifetime compared to the baseline. The baseline should match state-of-the-art at the start of the project and be substantiated in the proposal. Additionally, modelling activities may be employed to support these validations;Demonstrate the improved lifetime at system level using an industrially relevant stack of > 20 kW by testing under relevant conditions for a minimum of 2000 hours. Validation should be compatible with system level. It is expected that proposals explain their approach towards this. An example could be the use of a hardware-in-the-loop approach to simulate the operation of system components that are not part of the targeted development;In line with the TRL level aimed at the end of the project, the targeted level of hydrogen purity and outlet pressure should be indicated and taken into account when performing cost-calculations;Describe how the dynamic conditions arising from connection to the renewable grid will be addressed and justify the chosen approach (for example simulation of fluctuating power input from renewable energy);Sustainability, circularity and recycling aspects for the chosen materials and their manufacturing processes and perform techno-economic and life cycle assessments for the chosen developments. The expected TRL step at the end of the project should increase from TRL 3 to 5 or from TRL 4 to 6 depending on the chosen technology. Proposals should be aware of the current maturity level of the different technologies and should define their initial and final TRLs accordingly. In general, the technologies have a different maturity level and thus it may be expected that for PEMEL and AEL materials and component innovation would correspond with a TRL 4 to 6 step, whereas for AEMEL this could correspond to a TRL 3 to 5 step. Proposals are also expected to reach the 2030 SRIA targets as mentioned above. The following activities are within the scope of this project and the proposal should meet at least three of the following points and should include the two first points:

Investigate and further develop advanced cell components such as, but not limited to, electrodes (with minimised loading of CRM/PGM), membranes/electrolyte separators, functional additives (e.g. radical scavengers), joints and sealings, coatings, stack components such as bipolar plates and associated manufacturing processes that can realise CAPEX reduction and lifetime improvements at stack level under realistic operating conditions;Investigate and further develop advanced BoP components that prolong the lifetime of electrolysers, for example but not limited to: innovative H2 compressors, power electronics that reduce (the effect of) ripples, minimise corrosion and leaching out of ions from the BoP parts such as piping and pumps by using alternative materials and/or coatings, and/or minimise the effect of impurities in the water feed for example by ion exchange;Understand through experiments the different mechanisms affecting the performance of cell components such as the examples mentioned above during stack operation, and how the proposed development minimises the degradation along extended operation under realistic conditions. Modelling activities can be used to support these findings;Develop protocols for accelerated ageing and degradation monitoring that specifically target ageing mechanisms complementing the existing EU-harmonised testing protocols for low temperature electrolysis;Understand and minimise the impact of dynamic operation and grid integration, such as start/stop events and load fluctuations, under realistic operating conditions;Develop a lifetime model with a predictive value based on data acquired by testing at lab scale and stack scale. Proposals are expected to build further on the findings and targets of previous projects and find synergies with running projects in which the improvement of the lifetime at stack level of low-temperature electrolysers was within the scope. It is encouraged to find synergies with the ELECTROLIFE[2] project, supported by the JU, that focuses on comprehensive understanding of electrolyser degradation mechanisms through testing and modelling. It is also encouraged to have an electrolyser (stack) manufacturer in the consortium for this topic.

Proposals are also expected to build on previous projects (ANIONE[3], CHANNEL[4], ELECTROHYPEM[5], NEPTUNE[6], NEWELY[7], NEXPEL[8], NOVEL[9], PRETZEL[10]) and find synergy with existing projects (HyScale[11], HERAQCLES[12], AEMELIA[13], ENDURE[14], EXSOTHyC[15], SEAL-HYDROGEN[16]) in which the development of novel materials is/was in scope. In addition, synergy and learnings can be found with previous projects on the coupling of low temperature electrolysis with renewables such as DEMO4GRID[17], ELY4OFF[18], ELYGRID[19], ELYntegration[20].

Proposals should address the manufacturability of the components and materials to be developed. It is expected to provide a well-documented assessment of the scalability of manufacturing processes and procedures, as well as the sustainability and circularity of the selected materials and their production methods.

For activities developing test protocols and procedures for the performance and durability assessment of electrolysers and fuel cell components proposals should foresee a collaboration mechanism with JRC[21] (see section 2.2.4.3 "Collaboration with JRC"), in order to support EU-wide harmonisation. Test activities should adopt the already published EU harmonised testing protocols[22] to benchmark performance and quantify progress at programme level.

For additional elements applicable to all topics please refer to section 2.2.3.2.

Activities are expected to start at TRL 3-4 and achieve TRL 5-6 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.

The JU estimates that an EU contribution of maximum EUR 4.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2025 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023–2025 which apply mutatis mutandis

[1] IEA (2023), Global Hydrogen Review 2023, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/global-hydrogen-review-2023, Licence: CC BY 4.0

[2] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101137802

[3] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/875024

[4] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/875088

[5] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/300081

[6] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/779540

[7] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/875118

[8] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/245262

[9] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/303484

[10] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/779478

[11] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101112055

[12] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101111784

[13] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101137912

[14] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101137925

[15] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101137604

[16] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101137915

[17] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/736351

[18] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/700359/es

[19] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/278824

[20] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/671458

[21] https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/knowledge-management/collaboration-jrc-0_en

[22] https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/knowledge-management/collaboration-jrc-0/clean-hydrogen-ju-jrc-deliverables_en

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