Belgium

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reaffirmed the importance of scaling up renewable energy to decarbonise Europe’s economy while rapidly reducing its exposure to foreign fossil fuel suppliers. Therefore the question of sources of flexibility to support a fully decarbonised European energy system is becoming even more critical in light of a renewable-dominated energy system. We developed and used a Pan-European energy system model to systematically assess and quantify sources of flexibility to meet deep decarbonisation targets. The electricity supply sector and electricity-based end-use technologies are crucial in achieving deep decarbonisation. Other low-carbon energy sources like biomethane hydrogen synthetic e-fuels and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage will also play a role. To support a fully decarbonised European energy system by 2050 both temporal and spatial flexibility will be needed. Spatial flexibility achieved through investments in national electricity networks and cross-border interconnections is crucial to support the aggressive roll-out of variable renewable energy sources. Cross-border trade in electricity is expected to increase and in deep decarbonisation scenarios the electricity transmission capacity will be larger than that of natural gas. Hydrogen storage and green hydrogen production will play a key role in providing traditional inter-seasonal flexibility and intraday flexibility will be provided by a combination of electrical energy storage hydrogen-based storage solutions (e.g. liquid H2 and pressurised storage) and hybrid heat pumps. Hydrogen networks and storage will become more critical as we move towards the highest decarbonisation scenario. Still the need for natural gas networks and storage will decrease substantially.

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser stands as a promising candidate for sustainable hydrogen pro duction from renewable energy sources (RESs). Given the fluctuating nature of RESs accurate modelling of the PEM electrolyser is crucial. Nonetheless complex models of the PEM electrolyser demand substantial time and resource investments when integrating them into a large-scale power system. The majority of introduced models in the literature are either overly intricate or fail to effectively reproduce the dynamic behaviour of the PEM electrolyser. To this end this article aims to develop a model that not only captures the dynamic response of the PEM electrolyser crucial for conducting flexibility studies in the power system but also avoids complexity for seamless integration into large-scale simulations without comprising accuracy. To verify the model it is vali dated against static and dynamic experimental data. Compared to the investigated experimental cases the model exhibited an average error of 0.66% and 3.93% in the static and dynamic operation modes respectively.

The weather-dependent nature of renewable energy production has led to periodic overproduction making hydrogen production a practical solution for storing excess energy. In addition to conventional storage methods such as physical tanks or chemical bonding using the existing natural gas network as a storage medium has also proven to be effective. Households can play a role in this process as well. The purpose of these experiments is to evaluate the parameters of a household heating device currently in use but not initially designed for hydrogen operation. The appliance used in the tests has a closed combustion chamber with a natural draft induced by a density difference which is a common type. The tests were conducted at nominal load with a mix of 0–40 V/V% hydrogen and natural gas; no flashbacks or other issues occurred. As the hydrogen ratio increased from 0 to 40 V/V% the input heat decreased from 3.9 kW to 3.4 kW. The NOx concentration in the flue gas dropped from 26.2 ppm to 14.2 ppm and the CO2 content decreased from 4.5 V/V% to 3.4 V/V%. However the CO con centration slightly increased from 40.0 ppm to 44.1 ppm. Despite these changes efficiency remained stable fluctuating between 86.9% and 87.0%. The internal flame cone height was 3.27 mm when using natural gas but reduced sharply to just 0.38 mm when using 62 V/V% hydrogen. In addition to the fact that the article examines a group of devices that has been rarely investigated but is also widely distributed it also provides valuable experience for other experiments since the experiments were carried out with a higher hydrogen ratio compared to previous works.

This brochure provides a detailed overview of the EU’s funding mechanisms and an inspiring look at real projects managed by CINEA. These examples illustrate how diverse stakeholders from industry leaders to research institutions are translating hydrogen ambitions into impactful on-the-ground solutions that address both technological and societal needs.

This report aims to summarise the status of the European hydrogen market landscape. It is based on the information available at the European Hydrogen Observatory (EHO) initiative the leading source of data on hydrogen in Europe exploring the basic concepts latest trends and role of hydrogen in the energy transition. The data presented in this report is based on research conducted until the end of September 2024. This report contains information on current hydrogen production and trade distribution and storage end-use cost and technology manufacturing as of the end of 2023 except if stated otherwise in Europe. A substantial portion of the data gathering was carried out within the framework of Hydrogen Europe's efforts for the European Hydrogen Observatory. Downloadable spreadsheets of the data can be accessed on the website: https://observatory.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/. The production and trade section provides insights into hydrogen production capacity and production output by technology in Europe and into international hydrogen trade (export and import) to and between European countries. The section referring to distribution and storage presents the location and main attributes of operational dedicated hydrogen pipelines and storage facilities as well as publicly accessible and operational hydrogen refuelling stations in Europe. The end-use section provides information on annual hydrogen consumption per end-use in Europe the deployment of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles in Europe the current and future hydrogen Valleys in Europe and the leading scenarios for future hydrogen demand in Europe in 2030 2040 and 2050 by sector. The cost chapter offers a comprehensive examination of the levelised cost of hydrogen production by technology and country. This chapter also gives estimations of renewable hydrogen break-even prices for different end-use applications in addition to electrolyser cost components by technology. Finally a chapter on technologies manufacturing explores data on the European electrolyser manufacturing capacity and sales and the fuel cell market.

This report aims to summarise the status of the European hydrogen policy landscape. It is based on the information available at the European Hydrogen Observatory (EHO) website the leading source of data on hydrogen in Europe. The data presented in this report is based on research conducted by Hydrogen Europe until the end of July 2024 but also goes beyond this timeline for major policies legislations or standards implemented recently. This report builds upon the previous version published in April 2024 which reflected data as of August 2023 providing updated insights on European policies and legislation national strategies national policies and legislation and codes and standards. Interactive data dashboards can be accessed on the website: https://observatory.cleanhydrogen.europa.eu/ The EU policies and legislation section provides insights into the main European policies and legislation relevant to the hydrogen sector which are briefly summarized on content and their potential impact to the sector. The national hydrogen strategies chapter offers a comprehensive examination of the hydrogen strategies adopted in Europe. It summarizes the quantitative indicators that have been published (targets and estimates) and provides brief summaries of the different national strategies that have been adopted. The section referring to national policies and legislation focuses on the policy framework measures incentives and targets in place that have an impact on the development of the respective national hydrogen markets within Europe. The codes and standards section provides information on current European standards and initiatives developed by the standardisation bodies including CEN CENELEC ISO IEC OIML The standards are categorised according to the different stages of the hydrogen value chain: production distribution and storage and end-use applications.

This report includes information on European training programmes educational materials and the trends and patterns of research and innovation activity in the hydrogen sector with data of patent registrations and publications. It is based on the information available at the European Hydrogen Observatory (EHO) website (https://observatory.cleanhydrogen.europa.eu/) the leading source of hydrogen data in Europe. The data presented in this report is based on research conducted until the end of August 2024. The training programmes section provides insights into major European training initiatives categorized by location. It allows filtering by type of training focus area and language. It covers a wide range of opportunities such as vocational and professional trainings summer schools and Bachelor's or Master's programmes. The education materials chapter summarizes the publicly accessible educational materials available online. Documents can be searched by educational level by course subject by language or by the year of release. The section referring to research and innovation activity analyses trends and patterns in the hydrogen sector using aggregated datasets of patent registrations and publications by country.

This report assesses the market readiness of zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles and the required infrastructure to meet the 45% emission reduction targets set by the revised CO2 standards by 2030. Achieving these goals requires the widespread adoption of zero-emission vehicles and a robust recharging and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure Three main aspects are investigated: the market readiness of the vehicles considering both the demand and supply side the corresponding infrastructure requirements and the barriers. Building on the inputs of the stakeholders a ‘study scenario’ is developed. This scenario shows a concrete picture of what the zero-emission heavy-duty vehicle fleet and its infrastructure requirement could look like by 2030. There are however key barriers that need to be overcome such as high total cost of ownership limited electricity grid capacity lengthy permitting processes and uncertainty in hydrogen availability and pricing. Stakeholders also emphasize the importance of policy drivers such as emissions trading systems and tolling and tax reforms to stimulate demand. In conclusion achieving the 2030 targets demands a coordinated approach involving manufacturers operators and policymakers to address infrastructure gaps market barriers and policy incentives ensuring the transition to a zero-emission HDV fleet.

Dual-fuel engines are a way of transitioning the marine sector to carbon-neutral fuels like hydrogen and methanol. For the development of these engines accurate simulation of the combustion process is needed for which calculating the pilot’s ignition delay is essential. The present work investigates novel methodologies for calculating this. This involves the use of chemical kinetic schemes to compute the ignition delay for various operating conditions. Machine learning techniques are used to train models on these data sets. A neural network model is then implemented in a dual-fuel combustion model to calculate the ignition delay time and is compared using a lookup table or a correlation. The numerical results are compared with experimental data from a dual-fuel medium-speed marine engine operating with hydrogen or methanol from which the method with best accuracy and fastest calculation is selected.