HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024 (HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024)

ExpectedOutcome:

To realise the potential of hydrogen as an energy vector in the decarbonised economy it needs to be produced sustainably on a mass scale. Steam electrolysis based on proton conducting ceramic electrolysis cells (PCCEL) is a promising technology for directly producing dry hydrogen, and achieving high electrical stack efficiency and low degradation rate due to its operation at intermediate temperature, typically between 450°C and 700°C. PCCEL stack technology in Europe is currently based on tubular cells integrating Ni-cermet electrodes, BaZr1-x-yCexYyO3-d based electrolytes, and composite electrodes containing Cobalt (Co) and various rare earth elements. The intermediate operating temperature of this technology can be leveraged to replace these materials by e.g. cheaper steel-based components to reduce reliance on critical raw materials and strategic raw materials (CSRM) such as Co, rare earth elements, Nickel (Ni) etc. It will furthermore contribute to increasing lifetime by reducing thermally activated degradation and improving Faradaic efficiency. This calls for a new design approach of PCCEL cell and stack, ensuring the development of high-performance cell and stack with reduced amount of CRM and CSRM. This will further contribute to significant reduction of CAPEX of the technology.

The outcome of this topic will be an innovative low-cost cell and stack concept with improved current density than State-of-the-Art (SOA), which can be operated at intermediate temperatures (≤ 600oC) and exhibiting longer lifetime than SOA for energy efficient hydrogen production.

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Novel cells and stacks designed for operational temperatures ≤ 600°C and faradaic efficiency above 90%.

• Cells and stacks produced by scalable manufacturing techniques with potential for later integration and automation into a pilot line.

• Strengthened European value chain on electrolyser components with decreased reliability of critical and strategic raw materials from international imports.

• European leadership for renewable hydrogen production based on PCCEL electrolysers.

Project results are expected to contribute by the end of the project to all of the following objectives and KPIs of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA:

• Demonstrate successful start-up of the stack with a hot idle ramp time of 240s and cold start ramp time of 6h;

• Increase current density of cells above or equal to 0.75 A/cm2 at thermal neutral voltage at temperatures ≤ 600°C;

• Demonstrate short stack based on 5 single repeating units (SRU) with minimum total stack active area of 250 cm2 operated under representative conditions over > 2000 h targeting a degradation rate < 0.5 % / 1000h;

• Establish a roadmap for defining technological pathways enabling to reach CAPEX of 1400€/(kg/d) and OPEX of 85 €/(kg/d)/y.