Publications

The UK Hydrogen Champion engaged with stakeholders across the hydrogen value chain between July and December 2022.<br/>This report summarises their findings and makes recommendations for government and industry to accelerate the growth of the hydrogen sector.

In this paper a feasibility study was carried out to evaluate cyclic adsorption processes for capturing CO2 from either shifted synthesis gas or H2 PSA tail gas of an industrial-scale SMR-based hydrogen plant. It is expected that hydrogen is to be widely used in place of natural gas in various industrial sectors where electrification would be rather challenging. A SMR-based hydrogen plant is currently dominant in the market as it can produce hydrogen at scale in the most economical way. Its CO2 emission must be curtailed significantly by its integration with CCUS. Two Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption (VPSA) systems including a rinse step were designed to capture CO2 from an industrial-scale SMR-based hydrogen plant: one for the shifted synthesis gas and the other for the H2 PSA tail gas. Given the shapes of adsorption isotherms zeolite 13X and activated carbon were selected for tail gas and syngas capture options respectively. A simple Equilibrium Theory model developed for the limiting case of complete regeneration was taken to analyse the VPSA systems in this feasibility study. The process performances were compared to each other with respect to product recovery bed productivity and power consumption. It was found that CO2 could be captured more cost-effectively from the syngas than the tail gas unless the desorption pressure was too low. The energy consumption of the VPSA was comparable to those of the conventional MDEA processes.

A substantial CO2-emmissions abatement from the steel sector seems to be a challenging task without support of so-called “breakthrough technologies” such as the hydrogen-based direct reduction process. The scope of this work is to evaluate both the potential for the implementation of green hydrogen generated via electrolysis in the direct reduction process as well as the constraints. The results for this process route are compared with both the well-established blast furnace route as well as the natural gas-based direct reduction which is considered as a bridge technology towards decarbonization as it already operates with H2 and CO as main reducing agents. The outcomes obtained from the operation of a 6-MW PEM electrolysis system installed as part of the H2FUTURE project provide a basis for this analysis. The CO2 reduction potential for the various routes together with an economic study are the main results of this analysis. Additionally the corresponding hydrogen- and electricity demands for large-scale adoption across Europe are presented in order to rate possible scenarios for the future of steelmaking towards a carbon-lean industry.

Hydrogen-based energy storage and generation is an increasingly used technology especially in renewable systems because they are non-polluting devices. Fuel cells are complex nonlinear systems so a good model is required to establish efficient control strategies. This paper presents a hybrid model to predict the variation of H2 flow of a hydrogen fuel cell. This model combining clusters’ techniques to get multiple Artificial Neural Networks models whose results are merged by Polynomial Regression algorithms to obtain a more accurate estimate. The model proposed in this article use the power generated by the fuel cell the hydrogen inlet flow and the desired power variation to predict the necessary variation of the hydrogen flow that allows the stack to reach the desired working point. The proposed algorithm has been tested on a real proton exchange membrane fuel cell and the results show a great precision of the model so that it can be very useful to improve the efficiency of the fuel cell system.

Hydrogen production via electrochemical water splitting is a promising approach for storing solar energy. For this technology to be economically competitive it is critical to develop water splitting systems with high solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiencies. Here we report a photovoltaic-electrolysis system with the highest STH efficiency for any water splitting technology to date to the best of our knowledge. Our system consists of two polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysers in series with one InGaP/GaAs/GaInNAsSb triple-junction solar cell which produces a large-enough voltage to drive both electrolysers with no additional energy input. The solar concentration is adjusted such that the maximum power point of the photovoltaic is well matched to the operating capacity of the electrolysers to optimize the system efficiency. The system achieves a 48-h average STH efficiency of 30%. These results demonstrate the potential of photovoltaic-electrolysis systems for cost-effective solar energy storage.

Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2021 has set out ambitious targets for decarbonization across the energy transport heating and agriculture sectors. The Climate Action Plan followed the Climate Act 2021 which committed Ireland to a legally binding target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions no later than 2050 and a reduction of 51% by 2030. Green hydrogen is recognized as one of the most promising technologies for enabling the decarbonization targets of economies across the globe but significant challenges remain to its large-scale adoption. This research systematically investigates the barriers and opportunities to establishing a green hydrogen economy by 2050 in Ireland by means of an analysis of the policies supporting the optimal development of an overall green hydrogen eco-system in the context of other decarbonizing technologies including green hydrogen production using renewable generation distribution and delivery and final consumption. The outcome of this analysis is a set of clear recommendations for the policymaker that will appropriately support the development of a green hydrogen market and eco-system in parallel with the development of other more mature low-carbon technologies. The analysis has been supplemented by an open “call for evidence” which gathered relevant information about the future policy and roles of hydrogen involving the most prominent stakeholders of hydrogen in Ireland. Furthermore the recommendations and conclusions from the research have been validated by this mechanism.

This paper shows the results of an in-depth techno-economic analysis of the public transport sector in a small to midsize city and its surrounding area. Public battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses are comparatively evaluated by means of a total cost of ownership (TCO) model building on historical data and a projection of market prices. Additionally a structural analysis of the public transport system of a specific city is performed assessing best fitting bus lines for the use of electric or hydrogen busses which is supported by a brief acceptance evaluation of the local citizens. The TCO results for electric buses show a strong cost decrease until the year 2030 reaching 23.5% lower TCOs compared to the conventional diesel bus. The optimal electric bus charging system will be the opportunity (pantograph) charging infrastructure. However the opportunity charging method is applicable under the assumption that several buses share the same station and there is a “hotspot” where as many as possible bus lines converge. In the case of electric buses for the year 2020 the parameter which influenced the most on the TCO was the battery cost opposite to the year 2030 in where the bus body cost and fuel cost parameters are the ones that dominate the TCO due to the learning rate of the batteries. For H2 buses finding a hotspot is not crucial because they have a similar range to the diesel ones as well as a similar refueling time. H2 buses until 2030 still have 15.4% higher TCO than the diesel bus system. Considering the benefits of a hypothetical scaling-up effect of hydrogen infrastructures in the region the hydrogen cost could drop to 5 €/kg. In this case the overall TCO of the hydrogen solution would drop to a slightly lower TCO than the diesel solution in 2030. Therefore hydrogen buses can be competitive in small to midsize cities even with limited routes. For hydrogen buses the bus body and fuel cost make up a large part of the TCO. Reducing the fuel cost will be an important aspect to reduce the total TCO of the hydrogen bus.

The use of fossil fuels has caused many environmental issues including greenhouse gas emissions and associated climate change. Several studies have focused on mitigating this problem. One dynamic direction for emerging sources of future renewable energy is the use of hydrogen energy. In this research we evaluate the sourcing decision for a hydrogen supply chain in the context of a case study in Thailand using group decision making analysis for policy implications. We use an integrative multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) tool which includes an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) fuzzy AHP (FAHP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to analyze weighted criteria and sourcing alternatives using data collected from a group of selected experts. A list of criteria related to sustainability paradigms and sourcing decisions for possible use of hydrogen energy including natural gas coal biomass and water are evaluated. Our results reveal that political acceptance is considered the most important criterion with a global weight of 0.514 in the context of Thailand. Additionally natural gas is found to be the foreseeable source for hydrogen production in Thailand with a global weight of 0.313. We also note that the analysis is based on specific data inputs and that an alternative with a lower score does not imply that the source is not worth exploring.

Transportation is the sector responsible for the largest greenhouse gas emission in the UK. To mitigate its impact on the environment and move towards net-zero emissions by 2050 hydrogen-fuelled transportation has been explored through research and development as well as trials. This article presents an overview of relevant technologies and issues that challenge the supply use and marketability of hydrogen for transportation application in the UK covering on-road aviation maritime and rail transportation modes. The current development statutes of the different transportation modes were reviewed and compared highlighting similarities and differences in fuel cells internal combustion engines storage technologies supply chains and refuelling characteristics. In addition common and specific future research needs in the short to long term for the different transportation modes were suggested. The findings showed the potential of using hydrogen in all transportation modes although each sector faces different challenges and requires future improvements in performance and cost development of innovative designs refuelling stations standards and codes regulations and policies to support the advancement of the use of hydrogen.

Using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) a survey of international tourists on the island of Tenerife is conducted to examine preferences for fuel cell vehicle (FCV) rental while on vacation. Survey respondents were generally supportive of FCVs and willing to hire one as part of their trip but for most individuals this is contingent on an adequate fuel station infrastructure. A latent class model was used to identify three distinct groups; one of which potentially represent early adopters e they have a high willingness-to-pay (WTP) for green hydrogen and are more likely to accept a low number of fuel stations but it could be challenging to convince them to use FCVs if they are not run on green hydrogen.

A global energy shift to a carbon‐neutral society requires clean energy. Hydrogen can accelerate the process of expanding clean and renewable energy sources. However conventional hydrogen compression and storage technology still suffers from inefficiencies high costs and safety concerns. An electrochemical hydrogen compressor (EHC) is a device similar in structure to a water electrolyzer. Its most significant advantage is that it can accomplish hydrogen separation and compression at the same time. With no mechanical motion and low energy consumption the EHC is the key to future hydrogen compression and purification technology breakthroughs. In this study the compression performance efficiency and other related parameters of EHC are investigated through experiments and simulation calculations. The experimental results show that under the same experimental conditions increasing the supply voltage and the pressure in the anode chamber can improve the reaction rate of EHC and balance the pressure difference between the cathode and anode. The presence of residual air in the anode can impede the interaction between hydrogen and the catalyst as well as the proton exchange membrane (PEM) resulting in a decrease in performance. In addition it was found that a single EHC has a better compression ratio and reaction rate than a double EHC. The experimental results were compatible with the theoretical calculations within less than a 7% deviation. Finally the conditions required to reach commercialization were evaluated using the theoretical model.

Purpose: The policy module of the FCHO presents an overview of EU and national policies across various hydrogen and fuel cell related sectors. It provides a snapshot of the current state of hydrogen legislation and policy. Scope: This report covers 34 entities and it reflects data collected January 2022 – February 2022. Key Findings: Hydrogen policies are relatively commonplace among European countries but with large differences between member states. Mobility policies for FCEVs are the most common policy types. EU hydrogen leaders do not lag behind global outliers such as South Korea or Japan.

The deployment of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) is critical to achieve zero emissions. A key parameter influencing FCEV performance and durability is hydrogen fuel quality. The real impact of contaminants on FCEV performance is not well understood and requires reliable measurements from real-life events (e.g. hydrogen fuel in poor-performing FCEVs) and controlled studies on the impact of synthetic hydrogen fuel on FCEV performance. This paper presents a novel methodology to flow traceable hydrogen synthetic fuel directly into the FCEV tank. Four different synthetic fuels containing N2 (90–200 µmol/mol) CO (0.14–5 µmol/mol) and H2S (4–11 nmol/mol) were supplied to an FCEV and subsequently sampled and analyzed. The synthetic fuels containing known contaminants powered the FCEV and provided real-life performance testing of the fuel cell system. The results showed for the first time that synthetic hydrogen fuel can be used in FCEVs without the requirement of a large infrastructure. In addition this study carried out a traceable H2 contamination impact study with an FCEV. The impact of CO and H2S at ISO 14687:2019 threshold levels on FCEV performance showed that small exceedances of the threshold levels had a significant impact even for short exposures. The methodology proposed can be deployed to evaluate the composition of any hydrogen fuel.

This study proposed two concepts for ammonia fuel storage for an ammonia-fueled ammonia carrier and evaluated these concepts in terms of economics. The first concept was to use ammonia in the cargo tank as fuel and the second concept was to install an additional independent fuel tank in the vessel. When more fuel tanks were installed there was no cargo loss. However there were extra costs for fuel tanks. The target ship was an 84000 m3 ammonia carrier (very large gas carrier VLGC). It traveled from Kuwait to South Korea. The capacity of fuel tanks was 4170 m3 which is the required amount for the round trip. This study conducted an economic evaluation to compare the two proposed concepts. Profits were estimated based on sales and life cycle cost (LCC). Results showed that sales were USD 1223 million for the first concept and USD 1287 million for the second concept. Profits for the first and second concepts were USD 684.3 million and USD 739.5 million respectively. The second concept showed a USD 53.1 million higher profit than the first concept. This means that the second concept which installed additional independent fuel tanks was better than the first concept in terms of economics. Sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the influence of given parameters on the results. When the ammonia fuel price was changed by ±25% there was a 15% change in the profits and if the ammonia (transport) fee was changed by ±25% there was a 45% change in the profits. The ammonia fuel price and ammonia (cargo) transport fee had a substantial influence on the business of ammonia carriers.

Energy networks are the systems of pipes and wires by which different energy vectors are transported from where they are produced to where they are needed. As such these networks are central to facilitating countries’ moves away from a reliance on fossil fuels to a system based around the efficient use of renewable and other low carbon forms of energy. In this review we highlight the challenges facing energy networks from this transition in a sample of key high income countries. We identify the technical and other innovations being implemented to meet these challenges and describe some of the new policy and regulatory developments that are incentivising the required changes. We then review evidence from the literature about the benefits of moving to a more integrated approach based on the concept of a Multi-Vector Energy Network (MVEN). Under this approach the different networks are planned and operated together to achieve greater functionality and performance than simply the sum of the individual networks. We find that most studies identify a range of benefits from an MVEN approach but that these findings are based on model simulations. Further work is therefore needed to verify whether the benefits can be realised in practice and to identify how any risks can be mitigated.

The multi-generation systems with simultaneous production of power by renewable energy in addition to polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzer and fuel cell (PEMFC-PEMEC) energy storage have become more and more popular over the past few years. The fresh water provision for PEMECs in such systems is taken into account as one of the main challenges for them where conventional desalination technologies such as reverse osmosis (RO) and mechanical vapor compression (MVC) impose high electricity consumption and costs. Taking this point into consideration as a novelty solar still (ST) desalination is applied as an alternative to RO and MVC for better techno-economic justifiability. The comparison made for a residential building complex in Hawaii in the US as the case study demonstrated much higher technical and economic benefits when using ST compared with both MVC and RO. The photovoltaic (PV) installed capacity decreased by 11.6 and 7.3 kW compared with MVC and RO while the size of the electrolyzer declined by 9.44 and 6.13% and the hydrogen storage tank became 522.1 and 319.3 m3 smaller respectively. Thanks to the considerable drop in the purchase price of components the payback period (PBP) dropped by 3.109 years compared with MVC and 2.801 years compared with RO which is significant. Moreover the conducted parametric study implied the high technical and economic viability of the system with ST for a wide range of building loads including high values.

Purpose: The Training section of the Education and Training module of the FCHO offers a repository of training available in Europe. In addition to the training programmes Educational materials which are publicly accessible online are also available to access on the FCHO. https://www.fchobservatory.eu/observatory/education-and-training Scope: The training courses are displayed by location within a map and users can explore the data by selecting the type of training of interest. Two additional filters on the language and the focus of the training are available to refine the search according to user needs. Users of the online tool can be students professionals and individuals wishing to learn and be trained on FCH. To complement this mapping a repository of online resources is accessible on the FCHO. Users may retrieve reliable materials available for self-learning. Key Findings: Master programmes and professional training courses were the most mapped categories. There is a prevalence of training courses offered by Western European countries in the mapping. The majority of the training courses mapped are targeted at technicians engineers and doctorate. For Bachelor and Master programmes FCH is more often an element integrated in a programme than its main focus. “Hydrogen Production” and “Hydrogen end-uses: transports” were the most selected focus of courses among the 11 categories proposed. “Regulations Codes and Standards” was the least selected focus with only one training out of five tackling these aspects. Professional training is more often focusing on end-uses and safety than Master programmes. Master programmes put a strong emphasis on “Basic electrochemistry” “Hydrogen production”. European projects are the main source for publicly accessible materials to learn on FCH. Most of the materials listed are available in English. “Hydrogen End-Uses” is the focus category the most common in the materials listed.

This work investigates how to balance the electricity supply and demand in a carbon-neutral northern Europe. Applying a cost-minimizing electricity system model including options to invest in eleven different flexibility measures and cost-efficient combinations of strategies to manage variations were identified. The results of the model were post-processed using a novel method to map the net load before and after flexibility measures were applied to reveal the contribution of each flexibility measure. The net load was mapped in the space spanned by the amplitude duration and number of occurrences. The mapping shows that depending on cost structure flexibility measures contribute to reduce the net load in three different ways; (1) by reducing variations with a long duration but low amplitude (2) by reducing variations with a high amplitude but short duration and low occurrence or (3) by reducing variations with a high amplitude short duration and high occurrence. It was found that cost-efficient variation management was achieved by combining wind and solar power and by combining strategies (1–3) to manage the variations. The cost-efficient combination of strategies depends on electricity system context where electricity trade flexible hydrogen and heat production (1) manage the majority of the variations in regions with good conditions for wind power while stationary batteries (3) were the main contributors in regions with good conditions for solar power.

In this episode Steffan Eldred Hydrogen Knowledge Transfer Manager and Debra Jones Chemistry Knowledge Transfer Manager from Innovate UK KTN talk about hydrogen combustion with special guest Duncan Engeham European Research and Development Director at Cummins Inc.

The podcast can be found on their website.

All diesel-only trains in the UK will be removed from services by 2040. High volumetric density rapid refuelling ability and sophisticated experience in infrastructure and logistics make ammonia a perfect hydrogen carrying fuel for rail freight which urgently requires an economically viable solution. This study conducted a novel techno-economic study of ammonia-fuelled fuel cell powertrains to be compared with current diesel engine-based system and emerging direct hydrogen-fuelled fuel cell system. The results demonstrate that hydrogen-fuelled Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) and ammonia-fuelled PEMFCs (using an ammonia cracker) are more cost-effective in terms of Levelized Cost of Electricity. The ammonia fuel storage requires 61.5-75 % less space compared to the hydrogen storage. Although the ammonia-fuelled Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) powertrain has the highest electricity generation efficiency (56%) the overall cost requires a major reduction by 70% before it could be considered as an economically viable solution.

Purpose: The policy module of the FCHO presents an overview of EU and national policies across various hydrogen and fuel cell related sectors. It provides a snapshot of the current state of hydrogen legislation and policy. https://www.fchobservatory.eu/observatory/policy-and-rcs/eu-policies https://www.fchobservatory.eu/index.php/observatory/policy-and-rcs/nationalpolicies Scope: While FCHO covers 38 entities around the world due to the unavailability of some data at the time of writing this report covers 34 entities. The report reflects data collected January 2021 – May 2021. Key Findings: Hydrogen policies are relatively commonplace among European countries but with large differences between Member States. EU hydrogen leaders do not lag behind global outliers such as South Korea or Japan.

The European Union is committed to a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 as outlined in the Green Deal and Climate Law initiatives. In response to geopolitical events the RePowerEU initiative aims to enhance energy self-sufficiency reduce reliance on Russian natural gas and promote hydrogen utilization. Hydrogen valleys localized ecosystems integrating various hydrogen supply chain elements play a key role in this transition particularly benefiting isolated regions like islands. This manuscript focuses on optimizing a Centralized Green Hydrogen Production Facility (CGHPF) on the island of Crete. A mixed-integer linear programming framework is proposed to optimize the CGHPF considering factors such as land area wind and solar potential costs and efficiency. Additionally an in-depth sensitivity analysis is conducted to explore the impact of key factors on the economic feasibility of hydrogen investments. The findings suggest that hydrogen can be sold in Crete at prices as low as 3.5 EUR/kg. Specifically it was found in the base scenario that selling hydrogen at 3.5 EUR/kg the net profit of the investment could be as high as EUR 6.19 million while the capacity of the solar and wind installation supplying the grid hydrogen facility would be 23.51 MW and 52.97 MW respectively. It is noted that the high profitability is justified by the extraordinary renewable potential of Crete. Finally based on our study a policy recommendation to allow a maximum of 20% direct penetration of renewable sources of green hydrogen facilities into the grid is suggested to encourage and accelerate green hydrogen expansion.

The European Commission has identified hydrogen as a key part of its decarbonisation strategy. The 2022 REPowerEU Strategy set a target of 20MT consumption of renewable hydrogen by 2030. The Commission is keen to promote a single European market in hydrogen similar to the current one for natural gas. To this end it has published proposals on the regulation of  future European hydrogen infrastructure (pipelines storage facilities and import terminals). The European Council (representing Member States) and the European Parliament are finalising their amendments to the Commission proposals prior to ’trilogue’ negotiations and final agreement later this year. The paper ‘The EU Hydrogen and Gas Decarbonisation Package: help or hindrance for the development of a European hydrogen market?’ examines the European Commission proposals and their suitability for a developing  hydrogen market.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set decarbonisation goals for the shipping industry. As a result shipowners and operators are preparing to use low- or zero-carbon alternative fuels. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emission performances are fundamental for choosing suitable marine fuels. However the current regulations adopt tank-to-wake (TTW) emission assessment methods that could misrepresent the total climate impacts of fuels. To better understand the well-to-wake (WTW) GHG emission performances this work applied the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to a very large crude carrier (VLCC) sailing between the Middle East and China to investigate the emissions. The life cycle GHG emission impacts of using alternative fuels including liquified natural gas (LNG) methanol and ammonia were evaluated and compared with using marine gas oil (MGO). The bunkering site of the VLCC was in Zhoushan port China. The MGO and LNG were imported from overseas while methanol and ammonia were produced in China. Four production pathways for methanol and three production pathways for ammonia were examined. The results showed that compared with MGO using fossil energy-based methanol and ammonia has no positive effect in terms of annual WTW GHG emissions. The emission reduction effects of fuels ranking from highest to lowest were full solar and battery-based methanol full solar and battery-based ammonia and LNG. Because marine ammonia-fuelled engines have not been commercialised laboratory data were used to evaluate the nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. The GHG emission reduction potential of ammonia can be exploited more effectively if the N2O emitted from engines is captured and disposed of through after-treatment technologies. This paper discussed three scenarios of N2O emission abatement ratios of 30% 50% and 90%. The resulting emission reduction effects showed that using full solar and battery-based ammonia with 90% N2O abatement performs better than using full solar and battery-based methanol. The main innovation of this work is realising the LCA GHG emission assessment for a deep-sea ship.

The quality of the hydrogen delivered by refuelling stations is critical for end-users and society. The purity of the hydrogen dispensed at hydrogen refuelling points should comply with the technical specifications included in the ISO 14687:2019 and EN 17124:2022 standards. Once laboratories have set up methods they need to verify their performances for example through participation in interlaboratory comparisons. Due to the challenge associated with the production of stable reference materials and transport of these which are produced in hydrogen at high pressure (>10 bar) interlaboratory comparisons have been organized in different steps with increasing extent. This study describes an inter-laboratory comparison exercise for hydrogen fuel involving a large number of participants (13 laboratories) completed in less than a year and included eight key contaminants of hydrogen fuel at level close to the ISO14687 threshold. These compounds were selected based on their high probability of occurrence or because they have been found in hydrogen fuel samples. For the results of the intercomparison it appeared that fully complying with ISO 21087:2019 is still challenging for many participants and highlighted the importance of organising these types of exercises. Many laboratories performed corrective actions based on their results which in turn significantly improved their performances.