Publications

With the world facing the twin pressures of a warming climate and an ever-increasing amount of waste it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to rethink the way we generate energy and use materials. Despite growing awareness our energy systems are still largely dependent on fossil fuels and characterized by a linear ‘take-make-dispose’ model. This leaves us vulnerable to supply disruptions rising greenhouse gas emissions and the depletion of critical raw materials. Hydrogen is emerging as a potential carbonfree energy vector that can overcome both challenges if it is produced sustainably from renewable sources. This study reviews hydrogen production from a circular economy perspective considering industrial agricultural and municipal solid waste as a resource rather than a burden. The focus is on the reuse of waste as a catalyst or catalyst support for hydrogen production. Firstly the role of hydrogen as a new energy carrier is explored along with possible routes of waste valorization in the process of hydrogen production. This is followed by an analysis of where and how catalysts from waste can be utilized within various hydrogen production processes namely those based on using fossil fuels as a source biomass as a source and electrocatalytic applications.

Demand for hydrogen is expected to increase in the coming years to defossilize hard-to-abate sectors. In the European Union the question remains in which quantities and at what cost hydrogen can be produced to satisfy the growing demand. This paper applies different approaches to model costs and potentials of off-grid hydrogen production within the European Union. The modeled approaches distinguish the effects of different spatial and technological resolutions on hydrogen production potentials costs and prices. According to the results the hydrogen potential within the European Union is above 6800 TWh. This figure far surpasses the expected demand range of 1423 to 1707 TWh in 2050. The cost of satisfying the demand exceeds 100 billion euro at marginal costs of hydrogen below 85 euro per megawatt-hour. Additionally the results show that an integrated European Union market would reduce the overall system costs notably compared to a setup in which each country covers its own hydrogen demand domestically. Just a few countries would be able to supply the entire European Union’s hydrogen demand in the case of an integrated market. This finding leads to the conclusion that an international hydrogen infrastructure seems advantageous.

Energy transformation is one of the processes shaping contemporary urban transport systems with public transport being the subject of initiatives designed to enhance its attractiveness and transport utility including electromobility. This article presents a case study for a metropolitan conurbation—the GZM Metropolis in Poland—considering the economic efficiency of implementing buses with conventional diesel engines electric buses (battery electric buses) and hydrogen fuel cell-powered buses. The analysis is based on the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) method using the discounted cash flow (DCF) method.

The transition to green energy in the transport sector is becoming a priority in the context of global climate challenges and the European Green Deal. This paper investigates the development of alternative fuelling stations particularly electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and hydrogen stations across EU countries with a focus on Poland. It combines a policy and technology overview with a quantitative scientific analysis offering a multidimensional perspective on green infrastructure deployment. A Pearson correlation analysis reveals significant links between charging station density and both GDP per capita and the share of renewable energy. The study introduces an original Infrastructure Accessibility Index (IAI) to compare infrastructure availability across EU member states and models Poland’s EV charging station demand up to 2030 under multiple growth scenarios. Furthermore the article provides a comprehensive overview of biofuels including first- second- and third-generation technologies and highlights recent advances in hydrogen and renewable electricity integration. Emphasis is placed on life cycle considerations energy source sustainability and economic implications. The findings support policy development toward zero-emission mobility and the decarbonisation of transport systems offering recommendations for infrastructure expansion and energy diversification strategies.

Hydrogen production is increasingly vital for global decarbonization but remains a waterand energy-intensive process especially in arid regions. Despite growing attention to its climate benefits limited research has addressed the environmental impacts of water sourcing. This study employs a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate three water supply strategies for hydrogen production: (1) seawater desalination without brine treatment (BT) (2) desalination with partial BT and (3) freshwater purification. Scenarios are modeled for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Australia and Spain representing diverse electricity mixes and water stress conditions. Both electrolysis and steam methane reforming (SMR) are evaluated as hydrogen production methods. Results show that desalination scenarios contribute substantially to human health and ecosystem impacts due to high energy use and brine discharge. Although partial BT aims to reduce direct marine discharge impacts its substantial energy demand can offset these benefits by increasing other environmental burdens such as marine eutrophication especially in regions reliant on carbon-intensive electricity grids. Freshwater scenarios offer lower environmental impact overall but raise water availability concerns. Across all regions feedwater for SMR shows nearly 50% lower impacts than for electrolysis. This study focuses solely on the environmental impacts associated with water sourcing and treatment for hydrogen production excluding the downstream impacts of the hydrogen generation process itself. This study highlights the trade-offs between water sourcing brine treatment and freshwater purification for hydrogen production offering insights for optimizing sustainable hydrogen systems in water-stressed regions.

The European Union promotes decarbonization in energy-intensive industries like glass manufacturing. Collaboration between industry and researchers focuses on reducing CO2 emissions through hydrogen (H2) integration as a natural gas substitute. However to the best of the authors’ knowledge no updated real-world case studies are available in the literature that consider the on-site implementation of an electrolyzer for autonomous hydrogen production capable of meeting the needs of a glass manufacturing plant within current technological constraints. This study examines a representative hollow glass plant and develops various decarbonization scenarios through detailed process simulations in Aspen Plus. The models provide consistent mass and energy balances enabling the quantification of energy demand and key cost drivers associated with H2 integration. These results form the basis for a scenario-specific techno-economic assessment including both on-grid and off-grid configurations. Subsequently the analysis estimates the levelized costs of hydrogen (LCOH) for each scenario and compares them to current and projected benchmarks. The study also highlights ongoing research projects and technological advancements in the transition from natural gas to H2 in the glass sector. Finally potential barriers to large-scale implementation are discussed along with policy and infrastructure recommendations to foster industrial adoption. These findings suggest that hybrid configurations represent the most promising path toward industrial H2 adoption in glass manufacturing.

Minimizing carbon dioxide emissions is crucial due to the generation of energy from fossil fuels. The significance of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology which is highly successful in mitigating carbon emissions has increased. On the other hand hydrogen is an important energy carrier for storing and transporting energy and technologies that rely on hydrogen have become increasingly promising as the world moves toward a more environmentally friendly approach. Nevertheless the integration of CCS technologies into power production processes is a significant challenge requiring the enhancement of the combined power generation–CCS process. In recent years there has been a growing interest in process intensification (PI) which aims to create smaller cleaner and more energy efficient processes. The goal of this research is to demonstrate the process intensification potential and to model and simulate a hybrid integrated–intensified adsorptive-membrane reactor process for simultaneous carbon capture and hydrogen production. A comprehensive multi-scale multi-phase dynamic computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based process model is constructed which quantifies the various underlying complex physicochemical phenomena occurring at the pellet and reactor levels. Model simulations are then performed to investigate the impact of dimensionless variables on overall system performance and gain a better understanding of this cyclic reaction/separation process. The results indicate that the hybrid system shows a steady-state cyclic behavior to ensure flexible operating time. A sustainability evaluation was conducted to illustrate the sustainability improvement in the proposed process compared to the traditional design. The results indicate that the integrated–intensified adsorptive-membrane reactor technology enhances sustainability by 35% to 138% for the chosen 21 indicators. The average enhancement in sustainability is almost 57% signifying that the sustainability evaluation reveals significant benefits of the integrated–intensified adsorptive-membrane reactor process compared to HTSR + LTSR.

The production of iron and steel plays a significant role in the anthropogenic carbon footprint accounting for 7% of global GHG emissions. In the context of CO2 mitigation the steelmaking industry is looking to potentially replace traditional carbon-based ironmaking processes with hydrogen-based direct reduction of iron ore in shaft furnaces. Before industrialization detailed modeling and parametric studies were needed to determine the proper operating parameters of this promising technology. The modeling approach selected here was to complement REDUCTOR a detailed finite-volume model of the shaft furnace which can simulate the gas and solid flows heat transfers and reaction kinetics throughout the reactor with an extension that describes the whole gas circuit of the direct reduction plant including the top gas recycling set up and the fresh hydrogen production. Innovative strategies (such as the redirection of part of the bustle gas to a cooling inlet the use of high nitrogen content in the gas and the introduction of a hot solid burden) were investigated and their effects on furnace operation (gas utilization degree and total energy consumption) were studied with a constant metallization target of 94%. It has also been demonstrated that complete metallization can be achieved at little expense. These strategies can improve the thermochemical state of the furnace and lead to different energy requirements.

Developing low-cost and high-performance transition metal-based electro-catalysts is crucial for realizing sustainable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)in alkaline media. Here a cooperative boron and vanadium co-doped nickelphosphide electrode (B V-Ni2P) is developed to regulate the intrinsic elec-tronic configuration of Ni2P and promote HER processes. Experimental andtheoretical results reveal that V dopants in B V-Ni2P greatly facilitate the dis-sociation of water and the synergistic effect of B and V dopants promotes thesubsequent desorption of the adsorbed hydrogen intermediates. Benefitingfrom the cooperativity of both dopants the B V-Ni2P electrocatalyst requires alow overpotential of 148 mV to attain a current density of −100 mA cm−2 withexcellent durability. The B V-Ni2P is applied as the cathode in both alkalinewater electrolyzers (AWEs) and anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers(AEMWEs). Remarkably the AEMWE delivers a stable performance to achieve500 and 1000 mA cm−2 current densities at a cell voltage of 1.78 and 1.92 Vrespectively. Furthermore the developed AWEs and AEMWEs also demon-strate excellent performance for overall seawater electrolysis.

Fuel cell electric vehicles are getting deployed exponentially in Europe. Hydrogen fuel quality regulations are getting into place in order to protect customers and ensure end-users satisfactory experiences. It became critical to have the capability to sample and analyse accurately hydrogen fuel delivered by hydrogen refuelling stations in Europe. This study presents two separate comparisons: the first bilateral comparison between two sampling systems (H2 Qualitizer) and (“H2 Sampling System” of Air Liquide) and the interlaboratory comparison between NPL and Air Liquide on hydrogen fuel quality testing according to EN 17124. The two sampling systems showed equivalent results for all contaminants for sampling at 70 MPa hydrogen refuelling stations. The two laboratories showed good agreement at 95% confidence level. Even if the study is limited due to the low number of samples it demonstrates the equivalence of two sampling strategies and the ability of two laboratories to perform accurate measurement of hydrogen fuel quality.