Belgium

The FCH 2 JU launched the European Hydrogen Safety Panel (EHSP) initiative in 2017. The mission of the EHSP is to assist the FCH 2 JU both at programme and at project level in assuring that hydrogen safety is adequately managed and to promote and disseminate H2 safety culture within and outside of the FCH 2 JU programme. The EHSP is composed of a multidisciplinary pool of safety experts grouped in ad-hoc working groups (task forces) according to the tasks to be performed and to expertise. The scope and activities of the EHSP are structured around four main areas:

The Hydrogen Incident and Accident Database (HIAD) is being developed as a repository of systematic data describing in detail hydrogen-related undesired events (incidents or accidents). It is an open web-based information system serving various purposes such as a data source for lessons learnt risk communication and partly risk assessment. The paper describes the features of the three HIAD modules – the Data Entry Module (DEM) the Data Retrieval Module (DRM) and the Data Analysis Module (DAM) – and the potential impact the database may have on hydrogen safety. The importance of data quality assurance process is also addressed.

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolysis has demonstrated its potentialities in terms of cell efficiency (energy consumption ≈ 4.0-4.2 kW/Nm3 H2) and gas purity (> 99.99% H2). Current research activities are aimed at increasing operating pressure up to several hundred bars for direct storage of hydrogen in pressurized vessels. Compared to atmospheric pressure electrolysis high-pressure operation yields additional problems especially with regard to safety considerations. In particular the rate of gases (H2 and O2) cross-permeation across the membrane and their water solubility both increase with pressure. As a result gas purity is affected in both anodic and cathodic circuits and this can lead to the formation of explosive gas mixtures. To prevent such risks two different solutions reported in this communication have been investigated. First the chemical modification of the solid polymer electrolyte in order to reduce cross-permeation phenomena. Second the use of catalytic H2/O2 recombiners to maintain H2 levels in O2 and O2 levels in H2 at values compatible with safety requirements.

The report calls for a focus on new advanced alternative fuels in particular synthetic kerosene (efuels) which have the capacity to substantially reduce emissions and be scaled up to meet the fuel demands of the sector.

For aviation to reach zero emissions sustainable advanced fuels are needed to replace fossil kerosene currently used by the sector. The European Green Deal (EGD) includes a legislative proposal which would bring about a long overdue development and uptake of such fuels for the sector that legislative proposal is now being developed under the EU’s ReFuelEU initiative. However this initiative will only succeed if its support is limited to those fuels which can truly deliver emission reductions and which can be scaled up sustainably to meet the demand from the aviation sector. The paper recommends how such objectives can be achieved.

The ReFuelEU proposal should focus on these fuels with an ambitious programme combining mandates with financial support so that Europe's aviation sector is put on a pathway to net zero emissions.

Link to document download on Transport & Environment Website

This report shows that low-carbon hydrogen supply at scale is economically and environmentally feasible and will have significant societal benefits if the right localised approach and best-practices for production are used. The report also demonstrates that there is not one single hydrogen production pathway to achieve low lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but rather the need for a fact-based approach that leverages regional resources and includes a combination of different production pathways. This will achieve both emission and cost reductions ultimately helping to decarbonize the energy system and limit global warming.

In 2020 more than 15 countries launched major hydrogen plans and policies and industry players announced new projects of more than 35GW until 2030. As this hydrogen momentum accelerates it is increasingly clear that decision makers must put the focus on decarbonization to ensure hydrogen can fulfil its potential as a key solution in the global clean energy transition making a significant contribution to net zero emissions. To support this effort the two-part Hydrogen Council report provides new data based on an assessment of the GHG emissions generated through different hydrogen supply pathways and the lifecycle GHG emissions for different hydrogen applications (see report part 1 – A Life-cycle Assessment). In addition the report explores 3 hypothetical hydrogen supply scenarios to measure the feasibility and impact of deploying renewable and low-carbon hydrogen at scale (report part 2 – Potential Supply Scenarios).

The report outlines that there are many ways of producing hydrogen and although GHG emissions vary widely very high CO2 savings can be achieved across a broad range of different hydrogen production pathways and end-uses. For example while “green” hydrogen produced through water electrolysis with renewable power achieves the lowest emissions “blue” hydrogen produced from natural gas with high CO2 capture rate and storage can also achieve low emissions if best technologies are used and best practices are followed. Across eight illustrative pathways explored in the report analysis shows that if hydrogen is used significant GHG emission reductions can be made: as much as 60-90% or more compared to conventional fossil alternatives. The study also looked into the gross water demand of hydrogen supply pathways. Water electrolysis has a very low specific water demand of 9 kg per kg of hydrogen compared to cooling of thermal power plants (hundreds of kg/kg) or biomass cultivation (hundreds to thousands of kg/kg).

Furthermore low-carbon hydrogen supply at scale is fully achievable. Having investigated two hypothetical boundary scenarios (a “green-only” and a “blue-only” scenario) to assess the feasibility and impact of decarbonized hydrogen supply the report found that both scenarios are feasible: they are not limited by the world’s renewables potential or carbon sequestration (CCS) capacities and they do not exceed the speed at which industry can scale. In the Hydrogen Council’s “Scaling up” study a demand of 21800 TWh hydrogen has been identified for the year 2050. To achieve this a compound annual growth rate of 30-35% would be needed for electrolysers and CCS. This deployment rate is in line with the growth of the offshore wind and solar PV industry over the last decade.

Hydrogen Council data released in January 2020 showed that a wide range of hydrogen applications can become competitive by 2030 driven also by falling costs of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen[1]. The new study indicates that a combination of “green” and “blue” production pathways would lead to hydrogen cost reductions relative to either boundary scenario. By making use of the near-term cost advantage of “blue” while also scaling up “green” hydrogen as the most cost-efficient option in many regions in the medium and long-term the combined approach lowers average hydrogen costs between now and 2050 relative to either boundary scenario.

Part 1 – A Life-cycle Assessment

• The life-cycle assessment (LCA) analysis in this study addresses every aspect of the supply chain from primary energy extraction to end use. Eight primary-energy-to-hydrogen value chains have been selected for illustrative purposes.
• Across the hydrogen pathways and applications depicted very high to high GHG emission reduction can be demonstrated using green (solar wind) and blue hydrogen.
• In the LCA study renewables + electrolysis shows strongest GHG reduction of the different hydrogen supply pathways assessed in this study with a best-case blue hydrogen pathway also coming into the same order of magnitude.

Part 2 – Potential Supply Scenarios

• Currently the vast majority of hydrogen is produced by fossil pathways. To achieve a ten-fold build-out of hydrogen supply by 2050 as envisaged by the Hydrogen Council in its ‘Scaling Up’ report (2017) the existing use of hydrogen – and all its many potential new roles – need to be met by decarbonized sources.
• Three hypothetical supply scenarios with decarbonized hydrogen sources are considered in the study: 1) a “green-only” renewables-based world; 2) a “blue-only” world relying on carbon sequestration; and 3) a combined scenario that uses a region-specific combination of green and blue hydrogen based on the expected regional cost development of each source.
• The study finds that a decarbonized hydrogen supply is possible regardless of the production pathway: while both the green and blue boundary scenario would be highly ambitious regarding the required speed of scale-up they do not exceed the world’s resources on either renewable energy or carbon sequestration capabilities.
• A combination of production pathways would result in the least-cost global supply over the entire period of scale-up. It does so by making best use of the near-term cost advantage of “blue” in some regions while simultaneously achieving a scale-up in electrolysis.
• In reality the decarbonized supply scenario will combine a range of different renewable and low-carbon hydrogen production pathways that are optimally suited to local conditions political and societal preferences and regulations as well as industrial and cost developments for different technologies.

You can download the full reports from the Hydrogen Council website

Hydrogen Council Report- Decarbonization Pathways Part 1: Life Cycle Assessment here

Hydrogen Council Report-Decarbonization Pathways Part 2: Supply Scenarios here

An executive summary of the whole project can be found here

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is a promising method for power production with integrated CO₂ capture with almost no direct energy penalty. When integrated into a natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plant however CLC imposes a large indirect energy penalty because the maximum achievable reactor temperature is far below the firing temperature of state-of-the-art gas turbines. This study presents a techno-economic assessment of a CLC plant that circumvents this limitation via an added combustor after the CLC reactors. Without the added combustor the energy penalty amounts to 11.4%-points causing a high CO₂ avoidance cost of $117.3/ton which is more expensive than a conventional NGCC plant with post-combustion capture ($93.8/ton) with an energy penalty of 8.1%-points. This conventional CLC plant would also require a custom gas turbine. With an added combustor fired by natural gas a standard gas turbine can be deployed and CO2 avoidance costs are reduced to $60.3/ton mainly due to a reduction in the energy penalty to only 1.4%-points. However due to the added natural gas combustion after the CLC reactor CO₂ avoidance is only 52.4%. Achieving high CO₂ avoidance requires firing with clean hydrogen instead increasing the CO₂ avoidance cost to $96.3/ton when a hydrogen cost of $15.5/GJ is assumed. Advanced heat integration could reduce the CO₂ avoidance cost to $90.3/ton by lowering the energy penalty to only 0.6%-points. An attractive alternative is therefore to construct the plant for added firing with natural gas and retrofit the added combustor for hydrogen firing when CO₂ prices reach very high levels.

The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) has the ambitious objective to place Europe at the forefront of the development commercialization and deployment of fuel cells and hydrogen technologies as of 2015. About €470 million over a six year period have been granted by the European Union to achieve this and private funds are being attracted to support the same ambition as part of the global European effort embedded in the multi-annual implementation plan MAIP (2008-2013).

As of 2003 15 hydrogen refuelling stations (HRSs) have been deployed in the Netherlands. To become established the HRS has to go through a permitting procedure. An important document of the permitting dossier is the quantitative risk assessment (QRA) as it assesses the risks of the HRS associated to people and buildings in the vicinity of the HRS. In the Netherlands a generic prescribed approach exists on how to perform a QRA however specific guidelines for HRSs do not exist. An intercomparison among the QRAs of permitted HRSs has revealed significant inconsistencies on various aspects of the QRA: namely the inclusion of HRS sub-systems and components the HRS sub-system and component considerations as predefined components the application of failure scenarios the determination of failure frequencies the application of input parameters the consideration of preventive and mitigation measures as well as information provided regarding the HRS surroundings and the societal risk. It is therefore recommended to develop specific QRA guidelines for HRSs.

Hydrogen is widely recognised as a promising option for storing large quantities of renewable electricity over longer periods. For that reason in an energy future where renewables are a dominant power source opportunities for Power to- Hydrogen in the long-term appear to be generally acknowledged. The key challenge today is to identify concrete short-term investment opportunities based on sound economics and robust business cases. The focus of this study is to identify these early business cases and to assess their potential replicability within the EU from now until 2025. An essential part and innovative approach of this study is the detailed analysis of the power sector including its transmission grid constraints.

On the occasion of its 10th Stakeholder forum the FCH JU published a unique and exclusive book. This book sets out the story behind both the FCH JU and fuel cell and hydrogen technology in Europe. It reviews the events leading to its creation and examines the achievements that have allowed Europe to take a leading role in fuel cell and hydrogen excellence. It also looks at what this investment in fuel cell technology will mean for the EU in the coming years

Hydrogen can be produced from a broad range of renewable energy sources acting as a unique energy hub providing low or zero emission energy to all energy consuming sectors. Technically and efficiently producing hydrogen from renewable sources is a key enabler for these developments.<br/>Traditionally hydrogen has been produced from fossil sources by steam methane reforming of natural gas. At present the technology of choice to produce renewable ‘green’ hydrogen is water electrolysis using renewable electricity. The FCH JU has been supporting research and development of electrolyser technology and application projects aiming to increase the energy efficiency of electrolytic hydrogen production from renewable sources and to reduce costs.<br/>This study complements these activities by focusing on renewable hydrogen generation other than electrolysis. In this report these alternative hydrogen generation technologies are described characterized by their technical capabilities maturity and economic performance and assessed for their future potential.<br/>A methodology has been devised to first identify and structure a set of relevant green hydrogen pathways (eleven pathways depicted in the figure below) analyse them at a level of detail allowing a selection of those technologies which fit into and promise early commercialization in the framework of FCH 2 JU’s funding program.<br/>These originally proposed eleven pathways use solar thermal energy sunlight or biomass as major energy input.

The 2015 Programme Review Report refers to the fifth review of the FCH JU project portfolio and covers 100 projects funded through annual calls for proposals from 2009 to 2013.<br/>The reviews began in 2011 following a recommendation arising from the interim evaluation of the FCH JU which identified the need to ensure that the overall project portfolio fulfilled the objectives of the FCH JU Multi-Annual Implementation and Work Plans.

Initiated in 2011 the 2012 programme review edition covered 71‘live’ projects from the 2008 2009 and 2010 calls for proposals together with some projects from the 2011 call. Total funding for these projects stands at close to € 450 million 50% of which comes from FCH JU financial contributions and 50% of which comes from industry and research in-kind contributions.

In our factsheet where we debunk 3 myths around hydrogen production and water consumption: electrolysis uses vast amounts of water; electrolysis uses freshwater resources only and electrolysis is bound to create water stress in water-scarce regions.

Wind and solar energies present a time and space disparity that generally leads to a mismatch between the demand and the supply. To harvest their maximum potentials one of the main challenges is the storage and transport of these energies. This challenge can be tackled by electrofuels such as hydrogen methane and methanol. They offer three main advantages: compatibility with existing distribution networks or technologies of conversion economical storage solution for high capacity and ability to couple sectors (i.e. electricity to transport to heat or to industry). However the level of contribution of electric-energy carriers is unknown. To assess their role in the future we used whole-energy system modelling (EnergyScope Typical Days) to study the case of Belgium in 2050. This model is multi-energy and multi-sector. It optimises the design of the overall system to minimise its costs and emissions. Such a model relies on many parameters (e.g. price of natural gas efficiency of heat pump) to represent as closely as possible the future energy system. However these parameters can be highly uncertain especially for long-term planning. Consequently this work uses the polynomial chaos expansion method to integrate a global sensitivity analysis in order to highlight the influence of the parameters on the total cost of the system. The outcome of this analysis points out that compared to the deterministic cost-optimum situation the system cost accounting for uncertainties becomes higher (+17%) and twice more uncertain at carbon neutrality and that electrofuels are a major contribution to the uncertainty (up to 53% in the variation of the costs) due to their importance in the energy system and their high uncertainties their higher price and uncertainty.

This work focuses in investigating the effect of cold deformation on the cathodic hydrogen charging of 5083 aluminum alloy. The aluminium alloy was submitted to a cold rolling process until the average thickness of the specimens was reduced by 7% and 15% respectively. A study of the structure microhardness and tensile properties of the hydrogen charged aluminium specimens with and without cold rolling indicated that the cold deformation process led to an increase of hydrogen susceptibility of this aluminum alloy.

Presently hydrogen is for ~50% produced by steam reforming of natural gas – a process leading to significant emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG). About 30% is produced from oil/naphtha reforming and from refinery/chemical industry off-gases. The remaining capacity is covered for 18% from coal gasification 3.9% from water electrolysis and 0.1% from other sources. In the foreseen future hydrogen economy green hydrogen production methods will need to supply hydrogen to be used directly as fuel or to generate synthetic fuels to produce ammonia and other fertilizers (viz. urea) to upgrade heavy oils (like oil sands) and to produce other chemicals. There are several ways to produce H2 each with limitations and potential such as steam reforming electrolysis thermal and thermo-chemical water splitting dark and photonic fermentation; gasification and catalytic decomposition of methanol. The paper reviews the fundamentals and potential of these alternative process routes. Both thermo-chemical water splitting and fermentation are marked as having a long term but high "green" potential.

Hydrogen (H) presence in metals is detrimental as unpredictable failure might occur. Recent developments in material’s design indicated that microstructural features such as precipitates play an essential role in potentially increasing the resistance against H induced failure. This work evaluates the H trapping characteristics for TiC and V₄C₃ by thermal desorption spectroscopy and permeation experiments. Two microstructural conditions are compared: as quenched vs. quenched and tempered in which the carbides are introduced. The tempered induced precipitates are able to deeply trap a significant amount of H which decreases the H diffusivity in the materials and removes some of the detrimental H from the microstructure. For microstructural design purposes it is important to know the position of H. Here H is demonstrated to be trapped at the carbide/matrix interface by modifying the tempering treatment.

HarmonHy is a European Union-funded Specific Support Action aiming to make an assessment of the activities on hydrogen and fuel cell regulations codes and standards (RCS) on a worldwide level. On this basis gaps have been identified and potential conflicts between regulations codes and standards have been investigated. Types of document to be referred to include international regional and national standards EU directives UNECE regulations… Particular attention will be paid to the identification of the needs for standards as perceived by the industry as well as to actions aiming to ensure concordance between standards codes and regulations. Standards and regulations require harmonization. HarmonHy pursues the elaboration of an action plan and a roadmap for future work on harmonizing regulations codes and standards on hydrogen and fuel cells on an international level.

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: While FCHO covers 38 entities around the world due to the completeness of the data at the moment of writing this report covers 29 entities. The report reflects data collected January 2019 – December 2019. 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.

To increase the share of renewable zero-emission energy sources such as wind and solar power in our energy supply the problem of their intermittency needs to be addressed. One way to do so is by buffering excess renewable energy via the production of hydrogen which can be stored for later use after re-electrification. Such a clean renewable energy cycle based on hydrogen is commonly referred to as the hydrogen economy. This review deals with cluster model systems of the three main components of the hydrogen economy i.e. hydrogen generation hydrogen storage and hydrogen re-electrification and their basic physical principles. We then present examples of contemporary research on few atom clusters both in the gas phase and deposited to show that by studying these clusters as simplified models a mechanistic understanding of the underlying physical and chemical processes can be obtained. Such an understanding will inspire and enable the design of novel materials needed for advancing the hydrogen economy.

The document provides information on safety planning monitoring and reporting for the concerned hydrogen and fuel cell projects and programmes in Europe. It does not replace or contradict existing regulations which prevails under all circumstances. Neither is it meant to conflict with relevant international or national standards or to replace existing company safety policies codes and procedures. Instead this guidance document aims to assist in identifying minimum safety requirements hazards and associated risks and in generating a quality safety plan that will serve as an assisting guide for the inherently safer conduct of all work related to the development and operation of hydrogen and fuel cell systems and infrastructure. A safety plan should be revisited periodically as part of an overall effort to pay continuous and priority attention to the associated safety aspects and to account for all modifications of the considered system and its operations. Potential hazards failure mechanisms and related incidents associated with any work process or system should always be identified analysed reported (recorded in relevant knowledge databases e.g. HIAD 2.0 or HELLEN handbooks papers etc.) and eliminated or mitigated as part of sound safety planning and comprehensive hydrogen safety engineering which extends beyond the recommendations of this document. All relevant objects or aspects that may be adversely affected by a failure should be considered including low frequency high consequences events. So the general protection objective is to exclude or at least minimise potential hazards and associated risks to prevent impacts on the following:

• People. Hazards that pose a risk of injury or loss of life to people must be identified and eliminated or mitigated. A complete safety assessment considers not only those personnel who are directly involved in the work but also others who are at risk due to these hazards.
• Property. Damage to or loss of equipment or facilities must be prevented or minimised. Damage to equipment can be both the cause of incidents and the result of incidents. An equipment failure can result in collateral damage to nearby equipment and property which can then trigger additional equipment failures or even lead to additional hazards and risks e.g. through the domino effect. Effective safety planning monitoring and reporting considers and minimises serious risk of equipment and property damage.
• Environment. Damage to the environment must be prevented. Any aspect of a natural or the built environment which can be harmed due to a hydrogen system or infrastructure failure should be identified and analysed. A qualification of the failure modes resulting in environmental damage must be considered.

The Hydrogen Incidents and Accidents Database (HIAD) is an international open communication platform collecting systematic data on hydrogen-related undesired events (incidents or accidents). It was initially developed in the frame of the project HySafe an EC co-funded NoE of the 6th Frame Work Programme by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC) and populated by many HySafe partners. After the end of the project the database has been maintained and populated by JRC with publicly available events.<br/>Starting from June 2016 JRC has been developing a new version of the database (HIAD 2.01). With the support of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (FCH 2 JU) the structure of the database and the web-interface have been redefined and simplified resulting in a streamlined user interface compared to the previous version of HIAD. The new version is mainly focused to facilitate the sharing of lessons learnt and other relevant information related to hydrogen technology; the database is publicly released and the events are anonymized. The database currently contains over 250 events. It aims to contribute to improve the safety awareness fostering the users to benefit from the experiences of others as well as to share information from their own experiences.<br/>The FCH 2 JU launched the European Hydrogen Safety Panel (EHSP2) initiative in 2017. The mission of the EHSP is to assist the FCH 2 JU at both programme and project level in assuring that hydrogen safety is adequately managed and to promote and disseminate hydrogen safety culture within and outside of the FCH 2 JU programme. Composed of a multidisciplinary pool of experts – 16 experts in 2018 - the EHSP is grouped in small ad-hoc working groups (task forces) according to the tasks to be performed and the expertise required. In 2018 Task Force 3 (TF3) of the ESHP has encompassed the analysis of safety data and events contained in HIAD 2.0 operated by JRC and supported by the FCH 2 JU. In close collaboration with JRC the EHSP members have systematically reviewed more than 250 events.<br/>This report summarizes the lessons learnt stemmed from this assessment. The report is self-explanatory and hence includes brief introduction about HIAD 2.0 the assessment carried out by the EHSP and the results stemmed from the joint assessment to enable new readers without prior knowledge of HIAD 2.0 to understand the rationale of the overall exercise and the lessons learnt from this effort. Some materials have also been lifted from the joint paper between JRC and EHSP which will also be presented at the International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS 2019) to provide some general and specific information about HIAD 2.0.

In this present work simulations of 20 kW furnace were carried out with hydrogenenriched methane mixtures to identify optimal geometrical configurations and operating conditions to operate in flameless combustion regime. The objective of this work is to show the advantages of flameless combustion for hydrogen-enriched fuels and the limits of current typical industrial designs for these mixtures. The performances of a semi-industrial combustion chamber equipped with a self-recuperative flameless burner are evaluated with increasing H2 concentrations. For highly H2-enriched mixtures typical burners employed for methane appear to be inadequate to reach flameless conditions. In particular for a typical coaxial injector configuration an equimolar mixture of hydrogen and methane represents the limit for hydrogen enrichment. To achieve flameless conditions different injector geometries and configuration were tested. Fuel dilution with CO2 and H2O was also investigated. Dilution slows the mixing process consequently helping the transition to flameless conditions. CO2 and H2O are typical products of hydrogen generation processes therefore their use in fuel dilution is convenient for industrial applications. Dilution thus allows the use of greater hydrogen percentages in the mixture.

A “combined world” of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) will create a greener transportation sector faster and cheaper than one of the solutions alone. Hydrogen Council with analytical support from McKinsey and Company published a report that highlights the complementary roles of FCEVs and BEVs in a decarbonised transportation sector.

The analysis found that each solution has comparable systemic efficiencies and similar CO2 life cycle intensity. From the vehicle user perspective FCEVs and BEVs will provide the flexibility and convenience to meet their specific context of use and geographic location. Additionally the costs of two supporting infrastructure for FCEVs and BEVs is cheaper than one infrastructure network primarily due to the reduced peak loads and avoidance of costly upgrades on the electricity grid. The report’s messages were developed in dialogue with the Observatory Group which consisted of representatives of government agencies and academia as well as associations and companies active in sectors like regenerative electricity generation electricity grid equipment manufacturing electric vehicle charging fleet management.

The paper can be found on their website.