Slovenia

Solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) are an efficient technology for the production of green hydrogen that has great potential to contribute to the energy transition and decarbonization of industry. To date however time- and resource-intensive experimental campaigns slow down the development and market penetration of the technology. In order to speed-up the evaluation of SOEC performance and durability accelerated testing protocols are required. This work provides the results of experimental studies on the performance of a SOEC stack operated under accelerated degradation conditions. In order to initiate and accelerate degradation experiments were performed with high steam partial pressures at the gas inlet higher voltages and lower temperatures and high steam conversion rates. Thereby different types and degrees of impact on performance were observed which were analyzed in detail and linked to the underlying processes and degradation mechanisms. In this context significantly higher degradation rates were found compared to operation under moderate operating conditions with the different operating strategies varying in their degradation acceleration potential. The results also suggest that a few hundred hours of operation may be sufficient to predict long-term performance with the proposed operating strategies providing a solid basis for accelerated assessment of SOEC performance evolution and lifetime.

We present the results of a life-cycle assessment (LCA) for the manufacturing and end-of-life (EoL) phases of the following fuel-cell and hydrogen (FCH) technologies: alkaline water electrolyser (AWE) polymer-electrolyte-membrane water electrolyser (PEMWE) high-temperature (HT) and low-temperature (LT) polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) together with the balance-of-plant components. New life-cycle inventories (LCIs) i.e. material inputs for the AWE PEMWE and HT PEMFC are developed whereas the existing LCI for the LT PEMFC is adopted from a previous EU-funded project. The LCA models for all four FCH technologies are created by modelling the manufacturing phase followed by defining the EoL strategies and processes used and finally by assessing the effects of the EoL approach using environmental indicators. The effects are analysed with a stepwise approach where the CML2001 assessment method is used to evaluate the environmental impacts. The results show that the environmental impacts of the manufacturing phase can be substantially reduced by using the proposed EoL strategies (i.e. recycled materials being used in the manufacturing phase and replacing some of the virgin materials). To point out the importance of critical materials (in this case the platinum-group metals or PGMs) and their recycling strategies further analyses were made. By comparing the EoL phase with and without the recycling of PGMs an increase in the environmental impacts is observed which is much greater in the case of both fuel-cell systems because they contain a larger quantity of PGMs.

This European Green Deal Regulatory White Paper provides the views of Europe’s energy regulators represented by ACER and CEER on when and how to regulate the hydrogen networks in the future.



With the EU goal of becoming a carbon neutral continent by 2050 hydrogen is set to play a key role in decarbonising Europe's economy.

To realise the European Green Deal's ambitions for hydrogen the right regulatory framework must be created to facilitate a hydrogen economy in a cost-effective way.

European energy regulators (ACER and CEER) have published a set of recommendations on when and how to regulate pure hydrogen networks. The need and scope of hydrogen network regulation will depend on its structure and evolution.

This paper is the first in our new series of ACER-CEER European Green Deal Regulatory White Papers. This hydrogen paper examines:

• The circumstances under which regulating hydrogen networks is needed;
• How to treat existing hydrogen network infrastructure;
• How to address regulatory challenges related to the repurposing of gas infrastructure for dedicated hydrogen transport.

The aim is to deepen understanding on the regulatory aspects of Green Deal issues and to assist the European Commission in assessing various options as part of the preparations for legislation on hydrogen and energy system integration. With the EU goal of becoming a carbon neutral continent by 2050 hydrogen is set to play a key role in decarbonising Europe's economy.





The Full report can be found on the ACER website

The purpose of this paper is to obtain relevant data on materials that are the most commonly used in fuel-cell and hydrogen technologies. The focus is on polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cells solid-oxide fuel cells polymer-electrolyte-membrane water electrolysers and alkaline water electrolysers. An innovative methodological approach was developed for a preliminary material assessment of the four technologies. This methodological approach leads to a more rapid identification of the most influential or critical materials that substantially increase the environmental impact of fuel-cell and hydrogen technologies. The approach also assisted in amassing the life-cycle inventories—the emphasis here is on the solid-oxide fuel-cell technology because it is still in its early development stage and thus has a deficient materials’ database—that were used in a life-cycle assessment for an in-depth material-criticality analysis. All the listed materials—that either are or could potentially be used in these technologies—were analysed to give important information for the fuel-cell and hydrogen industries the recycling industry the hydrogen economy as well as policymakers. The main conclusion from the life-cycle assessment is that the polymer-electrolyte membrane water electrolysers have the highest environmental impacts; lower impacts are seen in polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cells and solid-oxide fuel cells while the lowest impacts are observed in alkaline water electrolysers. The results of the material assessment are presented together for all the considered materials but also separately for each observed technology.

Hydrogen applications range from an energy carrier to a feedstock producing bulk and other chemicals and as an essential reactant in various industrial applications. However the sustainability of hydrogen production storage and transport are neither unquestionable nor equal. Hydrogen is produced from natural gas biogas aluminium acid gas biomass electrolytic water splitting and others; a total of eleven sources were investigated in this work. The environmental impact of hydrogen production storage and transport is evaluated in terms of greenhouse gas and energy footprints acidification eutrophication human toxicity potential and eco-cost. Different electricity mixes and energy footprint accounting approaches supported by sensitivity analysis are conducted for a comprehensive overview. H2 produced from acid gas is identified as the production route with the highest eco-benefit (− 41188 €/t H2) while the biomass gasification method incurred the highest eco-cost (11259 €/t H2). The water electrolysis method shows a net positive energy footprint (60.32 GJ/t H2) suggesting that more energy is used than produced. Considering the operating footprint of storage and transportation gaseous hydrogen transported via a pipeline is a better alternative from an environmental point of view and with a lower energy footprint (38 %–85%) than the other options. Storage and transport (without construction) could have accounted for around 35.5% of the total GHG footprint of a hydrogen value chain (production storage transportation and losses) if liquefied and transported via road transport instead of a pipeline. The identified results propose which technologies are less burdensome to the environment.

To support the energy transition in the area of defence we developed a tool and conducted a feasibility study to transform a military site from being a conventional energy consumer to becoming an energy-positive hub (or prosumer). Coupling a green energy source (e.g. photovoltaic wind) with fuel cells and hydrogen storage satisfied the dynamic energy consumption and dynamic hydrogen demand for both the civilian and military mobility sectors. To make the military sector independent of its civilian counterpart a military site was connected to a renewable energy hub. This made it possible to develop a stand-alone green-energy system transform the military site into a positive energy hub and achieve autonomous energy operation for several days or weeks. An environmental and economic assessment was conducted to determine the carbon footprint and the economic viability. The combined installed capacity of the solar power plant and the wind turbine was 2.5 times the combined peak consumption with about 19% of the total electricity and 7% of the hydrogen produced still available to external consumers.

Commonly used materials constituting the core components of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) including the balance‐of‐plant were classified according to the EU criticality methodology with an additional assessment of hazardousness and price. A life‐cycle assessment (LCA) of the materials potentially present in PEMFC systems was performed for 1  g of each material. To demonstrate the importance of appropriate actions at the end of life (EoL) for critical materials a LCA study of the whole life cycle for a 1‐kW PEMFC system and 20000 operating hours was performed. In addition to the manufacturing phase four different scenarios of hydrogen production were analyzed. In the EoL phase recycling was used as a primary strategy with energy extraction and landfill as the second and third. The environmental impacts for 1 g of material show that platinum group metals and precious metals have by far the largest environmental impact; therefore it is necessary to pay special attention to these materials in the EoL phase. The LCA results for the 1‐kW PEMFC system show that in the manufacturing phase the major environmental impacts come from the fuel cell stack where the majority of the critical materials are used. Analysis shows that only 0.75 g of platinum in the manufacturing phase contributes on average 60% of the total environmental impacts of the manufacturing phase. In the operating phase environmentally sounder scenarios are the hydrogen production with water electrolysis using hydroelectricity and natural gas reforming. These two scenarios have lower absolute values for the environmental impact indicators on average compared with the manufacturing phase of the 1‐kW PEMFC system. With proper recycling strategies in the EoL phase for each material and by paying a lot of attention to the critical materials the environmental impacts could be reduced on average by 37.3% for the manufacturing phase and 23.7% for the entire life cycle of the 1‐kW PEMFC system.

In this paper a comparative analysis of direct operating costs between a 19-seat conventional and hydrogen-powered fuel cell aircraft is performed by developing a model to estimate direct operating costs and considering the evolution of costs over time from 2030 to 2050. However due to the technology being in its early stages of development and implementation there are still considerable uncertainties surrounding the direct operating costs of hydrogen aircraft. To address this the study considers high and low kerosene growth rates and optimistic and pessimistic development scenarios for hydrogen fuel cell aircraft while also considering the evolution of costs over time. The comparative analysis uses real flight and aircraft data for the airliner Trade Air. The results show that the use of 19-seat hydrogen fuel cell aircraft for air transportation is a viable option when compared to conventional aircraft. Additionally the study suggests potential policies and other measures that could accelerate the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell technology by considering their direct operating costs.

Severe accidents in nuclear power plants are potentially dangerous to both humans and the environment. To prevent and/or mitigate the consequences of these accidents it is paramount to have adequate accident management measures in place. During a severe accident combustible gases — especially hydrogen and carbon monoxide — can be released in significant amounts leading to a potential explosion risk in the nuclear containment building. These gases need to be managed to avoid threatening the containment integrity which can result in the releases of radioactive material into the environment. The main objective of the AMHYCO project is to propose innovative enhancements in the way combustible gases are managed in case of a severe accident in currently operating reactors. For this purpose the AMHYCO project pursues three specific activities including experimental investigations of relevant phenomena related to hydrogen / carbon monoxide combustion and mitigation with PARs (Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners) improvement of the predictive capabilities of analysis tools used for explosion hazard evaluation inside the reactor containment as well as enhancement of the Severe Accident Management Guidelines (SAMGs) with respect to combustible gases risk management based on theoretical and experimental results. Officially launched on 1 October 2020 AMHYCO is an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project that will last 4 years from 2020 to 2024. This international project consists of 12 organizations (six from European countries and one from Canada) and is led by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). AMHYCO will benefit from the worldwide experts in combustion science accident management and nuclear safety in its Advisory Board. The paper will give an overview of the work program and planned outcome of the project.

During a severe accident in a nuclear power plant one of the potential threats to the containment is the occurrence of energetic combustion events. In modern plants Severe Accident Management Guidelines (SAMG) as well as dedicated mitigation hardware are in place to minimize/mitigate this combustion risk and thus avoid the release of radioactive material into the environment. Advancements in SAMGs are in the focus of AMHYCO an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project officially launched on October 1st 2020. The project consortium consists of 12 organizations (from six European countries and one from Canada) and is coordinated by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). The progress made in the first two years of the AMHYCO project is here presented. A comprehensive bibliographic review has been conducted providing a common foundation to build the knowledge gained during the project. After an extensive set of accident transients simulated both for phases occurring inside and outside the reactor pressure vessel a set of challenging sequences from the combustion risk perspective for different power plant types were identified. At the same time three generic containment models for the three considered reactor designs have been created to provide the full containment analysis simulations with lumped parameter models 3-dimensional containment codes and CFD codes. In order to further consolidate the model base combustion experiments and performance tests on passive auto-catalytic recombiners under explosion prone H2/CO atmospheres were performed at CNRS (France) and FZJ (Germany). Finally it is worth saying that the experimental data and engineering models generated from the AMHYCO project are useful for other industries outside the nuclear one.

The focus on sustainable energy sources is intensifying as they present a viable alternative to conventional fossil fuels. The emergence of clean and renewable hydrogen fuel marks a significant technological shift toward decarbonizing the environment. Harnessing mechanical and thermal energy through piezoelectric and pyroelectric catalysis has emerged as an effective strategy for producing hydrogen and contributing to reducing dependence on carbon-based fuels. In this regard this review presents recent advances in piezoelectric and pyroelectric catalysis induced by mechanical and thermal excitations respectively towards hydrogen generation via the water splitting process. A thorough description of the fundamental principles underlying the piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects is provided complemented by an analysis of the catalytic processes induced by these effects. Subsequently these effects are examined to propose the prerequisites needed for such catalysts to achieve water splitting reaction and hydrogen generation. Special attention is devoted to identifying the various strategies adopted to enhance hydrogen production in order to provide new paths for increased efficiency.