Project description
Detecting impurities in hydrogen fuel
Impurities can be present in hydrogen fuel and can affect the quality and safety of the fuel, impacting the performance of the fuel cell. In this context, the EU-funded HQE project will investigate and understand hydrogen fuel quality across Europe. By collecting spot samples of hydrogen from at least 100 hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) in 13 European countries, the project will provide data on the impurities present in hydrogen fuel. This will enable HRS operators to form a cost-effective risk assessment quality assurance plan instead of a prescriptive approach, thus lowering the price of hydrogen at the nozzle and increasing consumer confidence. The project will also develop testing capacity and investigate the occurrence of new impurities.
Objective
HyQuality Europe aims to understand hydrogen fuel quality across Europe and enable HRS operators to provide assurance that their fuel is fulfilling the required quality standards. The project is designed to understand hydrogen fuel quality in Europe by carrying out a representative mass market investigation of European HRS hydrogen quality, collecting 300 spot samples of both light-duty (700 bar, <60 g/s flow rate) and heavy-duty samples (350 bar, >60 g/s flow rate) from at least 100 HRS in at least 13 European countries. These samples will be analysed by the leading hydrogen analysis laboratories in Europe, and the results will be published in an open-source database. The results will provide the data to clarify the Occurrence Class of different European HRS impurities, from which HRS operators will be able to form a cost-effective risk assessment quality assurance plan instead of taking an expensive prescriptive approach. By facilitating HRS operators to provide low cost quality assurance the project will lower the price of hydrogen at the nozzle and subsequently increase consumer confidence, increase the incentive for fleet operators to switch to hydrogen vehicles, and enable the widespread deployment of hydrogen vehicles and refuelling infrastructure.
The project will also advance upon state-of-the-art hydrogen quality assurance by instrumenting 3 HRS with online analysers, and develop testing capacity by laboratory proficiency testing 10 European hydrogen analysis laboratories in line with ISO standards. Finally, the occurrence of a minimum of 4 new impurities will be investigated using wide scope analytical techniques. The project will proactively seek to influence the development of ISO standards and future research on this crucial topic through the involvement of leading researchers in the field.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.2.5 - Climate, Energy and Mobility Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-JU-RIA - HORIZON JU Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
7034 Trondheim
Norway