PRESSurized HYdrogen prOdUced by high temperature Steam electrolysis

ongoing

The production and use of clean H2 is a key lever for the decarbonation of industries, as a fuel for transportation and as a storage vector for renewable electricity at large scale. The RePowerEU plan, for saving energy, producing clean energy, and diversifying energy supplies sets out a strategy to double the previous EU renewable H2 target (10 million tons/y of domestic production +10 million tons/y of H2 imports). Meeting these targets requires the EU to significantly upscale its manufacturing capacities for innovative equipment such as electrolysers. However, using H2 requires given levels of pressure depending on applications. Thus to pave the way to the delivery of down to zero emissions of pressurised H2 at reduced cost (around 3 €/kg by 2030), PressHyous will validate the operation of a 20 kWe pressurised lab-scale device (eq. 13.5 kg H2/d) composing of a solid oxide electrolyser (SOEL) stack placed in a pressurised vessel, up to 30 bar at 1 A/cm2 and 1.3V during 4000h. PressHyous will also investigate a promising pressurised stack concept (without pressure vessel) relieving the cost of Balance of Plant. This will be tested up to 10 bar at short stack scale, at a similar current density to the stack operated in a pressurised vessel. These two stacks will integrate optimised components such as cell and sealing. PressHyous will in parallel deliver model-based insights for H2 production under pressure for up to 5 identified use cases, on expectable performances of both stack concepts (with or without pressurised vessel) towards large scale developments up to 100s MWe, in strong link with techno-economic and life-cycle analysis. PressHyous consortium gathers a large portfolio of skills from modelling to system manufacturing, and a wide range of partners (RTOs and industrials) all along the value chain. The scientific and technological activities are all intended to strive towards the overall design and validation of future MWe large scale pressurised SOEL.