France

Oceanic energy sources notably offshore wind and wave power present a significant opportunity to generate green hydrogen through water electrolysis. This approach allows for offshore hydrogen production which can be efficiently transported through existing pipelines and stored in various forms offering a versatile solution to tackle the intermittency of renewable energy sources and potentially revolutionize the entire electrical grid infrastructure. This research focusses on assessing the technical and economic feasibility of this method in six strategic coastal regions in Morocco: Laayoune Agadir Essaouira Eljadida Casablanca and Larache. Our proposed system integrates offshore wind turbines oscillating water column wave energy converters and PEM electrolyzers to meet energy demands while aligning with global sustainability objectives. Significant electricity production estimates are observed across these regions ranging from 14 MW to 20 MW. Additionally encouraging annual estimates of hydrogen production varying between 20 and 40 tonnes for specific locations showcase the potential of this approach. The system’s performance demonstrates promising efficiency rates ranging from 13% to 18% while maintaining competitive production costs. These findings underscore the ability of oceanic energy-driven green hydrogen to diversify Morocco’s energy portfolio bolster water resilience and foster sustainable development. Ultimately this research lays the groundwork for comprehensive energy policies and substantial infrastructure investments positioning Morocco on a trajectory towards a decarbonized future powered by innovative and clean technologies.

Gas leak detection on a production site is a major challenge for the safety and health of workers for environmental considerations and from an economic point of view. In addition flammable gas leaks are a safety risk because if ignited they can cause serious fires or explosions. For these reasons Acoem Metravib in collaboration with TotalEnergies One Tech R&D Safety has developed for the past four years a system called AGLED for the early detection localization and classification of such leaks exploiting acoustics and artificial intelligence driven by physics. Numerous tests have been conducted on a theater representative of gas production facilities created by TotalEnergies in Lacq (France) to build a robust learning database of leaks varying in flowrates exhaust diameters and also types (hole nozzle flange...). Moreover to limit the number of false alarms a relearning strategy has been implemented to handle unexpected disturbances (wildlife human activities meteorological events...). The presented paper describes the global architecture of the system from noise acquisition to the gas leak probability and coordinates. It gives a more in-depth look at the relearning algorithm and its performance in various environments. Finally thanks to a complementary collaboration with Air Liquide an example of test campaign in a real industrial environment is presented with an emphasis on the improvement obtained through relearning.

This study aims to elucidate the behavior of diffusible hydrogen and delayed fracture in martensitic steel with 1500 MPa strength during automotive painting process and under vehicle service conditions. A sequential process of automotive pretreatment line and vehicle service environment is simulated to evaluate the hydrogen pick up in each process. In case of the automotive painting line the absorption of hydrogen is within the common range in the process of phosphating treatment and electrodeposition. The baking process plays an effective role for desorbing the diffusible hydrogen absorbed during the automotive pre-treatment such as zinc-phosphating and electrodeposition process. In case of the corrosion environment under the automotive driving conditions hydrogen induced delayed fracture is accelerated as the exposure time increases. Further it is clarified that severe plastic deformation are the significant factors for hydrogen induced delayed fracture under with low pH value and present of chloride ion in a chemical solution parameter. In summary hydrogen is transported constantly during electrodeposition sequential line process of automobile manufacturing below the hydrogen content of 0.5 ppm which is not critical value for leading to hydrogen delayed fracture based on results of slow strain rate tensile tests. However exposure to extreme conditions under service environment of vehicle such as acidic solution and chloride chemistry solution that result in high level of hydrogen absorption severe plastic deformation in the sheared edge and constantly applied internal or external stresses can cause the hydrogen induced delayed fracture in the fully martensitic steels.

Hydrogen has become a key enabler for decarbonization as countries pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. With hydrogen infrastructure expanding rapidly beyond its established applications there is a requirement for robust safety practices solutions and regulations. Since the 1980s considerable efforts have been undertaken by the nuclear community to address hydrogen safety issues because in severe accidents of water-cooled nuclear reactors a large amount of hydrogen can be produced from the oxidation of metallic components with steam. As evidenced in the Fukushima accident hydrogen combustion can cause severe damage to reactor building structures promoting the release of radioactive fission products to the environment. A number of large-scale experiments were conducted in the framework of national and international projects to understand the hydrogen dispersion and combustion behaviour under postulated accidental conditions. Empirical engineering models and numerical codes were developed and validated for safety analysis. Hydrogen recombiners known as Passive Autocatalytic Recombiner (PAR) were developed and have been widely installed in nuclear containments to mitigate hydrogen risk. Complementary actions and strategies were established as part of severe accident management guidelines to prevent or limit the consequences of hydrogen explosions. In addition hydrogen monitoring systems were developed and implemented in nuclear power plants. The experience and knowledge gained from the nuclear community on hydrogen safety is valuable and applicable for other industries involving hydrogen production transport storage and use.

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 design of an efficient techno-economic autonomous fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle(FCHEV) is a crucial challenge. This paper investigates the design of a near optimal PI controller for an automated FCHEV where autonomy is expressed as efficient and robust tracking of a given reference speed trajectory without driver’s intervention. An impartial comparison is introduced to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed metaheuristic-based optimal controllers in enhancing the system dynamic performance. The comprehensive optimization performance indicator is considered as a function of the vehicle dynamic characteristics while determining the optimal controller gains. In this paper the proposed effective up-to-date metaheuristic techniques are the grey wolf optimization (GWO) as well as the artificial bee colony (ABC). Using MATLAB TM /Simulink numerical simulations clearly illustrate the efficiency of near-optimal gains in the optimized tuning methodologies and the fixed manual one in realizing adequate velocity tracking. The simulation results demonstrate the superiority of both ABC and GWO rather than the manual controller for driving cycles of high acceleration and deceleration levels. In absence of these latter the manual defined gain controller is considered sufficient. Through a comprehensive sensitivity analysis the robustness of both metaheuristic-based controllers is verified under diverse driving cycles of different operation features and nature. Despite GWO results in better dynamic characteristics the ABC provides more economical feature with about 1.5% compared to manual system in extra urban driving cycle. However manual-controller has the minimum fuel cost under the United States driving cycle developed by the environmental protection agency as a New York city cycle(US EPA NYCC) and urban driving cycle (ECE). Ecologically electric vehicles have an environmentally friendly effect especially when driven with green hydrogen. Autonomous vehicles involving velocity control systems would raise car share and provide more comfort.

In the framework of the ongoing EMPIR JRP 16ENG01 ‘‘Metrology for Hydrogen Vehicles’’ a main task is to investigate the influence of pressure on the measurement accuracy of Coriolis Mass Flow Meters (CFM) used at Hydrogen Refueling Stations (HRS). At a HRS hydrogen is transferred at very high and changing pressures with simultaneously varying flow rates and temperatures. It is clearly very difficult for CFMs to achieve the current legal requirements with respect to mass flow measurement accuracy at these measurement conditions. As a result of the very dynamic filling process it was observed that the accuracy of mass flow measurement at different pressure ranges is not sufficient. At higher pressures it was found that particularly short refueling times cause significant measurement deviations. On this background it may be concluded that pressure has a great impact on the accuracy of mass flow measurement. To gain a deeper understanding of this matter RISE has built a unique high-pressure test facility. With the aid of this newly developed test rig it is possible to calibrate CFMs over a wide pressure and flow range with water or base oils as test medium. The test rig allows calibration measurements under the conditions prevailing at a 70 MPa HRS regarding mass flows (up to 3.6 kg min−1) and pressures (up to 87.5 MPa).

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (HFC EVs) represent an alternative to replace current internal combustion engine vehicles. The use of these vehicles with storage of compressed gaseous hydrogen (CGH2) in confined spaces such as tunnels underground car parks etc. creates new challenges to ensure the protection of people and property and to keep the risk at an acceptable level. The HYTUNNEL-CS project sponsored by the FCH-JU was launched to develop validated hazard and risk assessment tools for the behavior of hydrogen leaks in tunnels. Among the experiments carried out in support of the validation tools the CEA has conducted tests on gas dispersion in a full-scale tunnel geometry. In the tests carried out hydrogen is replaced by helium under a pressure of 70 MPa in a 78 liter tank. The car is simulated by a flat plate called chassis and the discharges are made either downwards under the chassis or upwards to take into account a rollover of the car during the accident. Different thermally activated pressure relief device (TPRD) diameters are examined as well as different orientations of the discharge. Finally the mixing transient of helium with air is measured for distances between -50 and +50m from the release. Performing CFD simulations of such an under-expanded jet in an environment as large as a road tunnel demands a compressible flow solver and so a large computational cost. To optimize this cost a notional nozzle approach is generally used to replace the under-expanded jet by a subsonic jet that has the same concentration dilution behavior. The physics at the injection point is then not resolved and a model of these boundary conditions has to be implemented. This article first reviews the main experimental results. Then a model of boundary conditions is proposed to have a subsonic hydrogen jet that matches the dilution characteristics of an under-expanded jet. Furthermore this model is implemented in the TRUST LES computer code and in the Neptune-CFD RANS computer code in order to simulate some helium dispersion experiments. Finally results from the CFD simulations are compared to the experimental results and the effect of the exact shape of the tunnel is also assessed by comparing simulations with idealized flat walls and real scanned walls.

The absence of contaminants in the hydrogen delivered at the hydrogen refuelling station is critical to ensure the length life of FCEV. Hydrogen quality has to be ensured according to the two international standards ISO 14687–2:2012 and ISO/DIS 19880-8. Amount fraction of contaminants from the two hydrogen production processes steam methane reforming and PEM water electrolyser is not clearly documented. Twenty five different hydrogen samples were taken and analysed for all contaminants listed in ISO 14687-2. The first results of hydrogen quality from production processes: PEM water electrolysis with TSA and SMR with PSA are presented. The results on more than 16 different plants or occasions demonstrated that in all cases the 13 compounds listed in ISO 14687 were below the threshold of the international standards. Several contaminated hydrogen samples demonstrated the needs for validated and standardised sampling system and procedure. The results validated the probability of contaminants presence proposed in ISO/DIS 19880-8. It will support the implementation of ISO/ DIS 19880-8 and the development of hydrogen quality control monitoring plan. It is recommended to extend the study to other production method (i.e. alkaline electrolysis) the HRS supply chain (i.e. compressor) to support the technology growth.

Energy transition will reshape the power sector and hydrogen is a key energy carrier that could contribute to energy security. The inclusion of sustainability criteria is crucial for the adequate design/deployment of resilient hydrogen networks. While cost and environmental metrics are commonly included in hydrogen models social aspects are rarely considered. This paper aims to identify the social criteria related to the hydrogen economy by using a systematic hybrid literature review. The main contribution is the identification of twelve social aspects which are described ranked and discussed. “Accessibility” “Information” “H2 markets” and “Acceptability” are now emerging as the main themes of hydrogen-related social research. Identified gaps are e.g. lack of the definition of the value of H2 for society insufficient research for “socio-political” aspects (e.g. geopolitics wellbeing) scarce application of social lifecycle assessment and the low amount of works with a focus on social practices and cultural issues.