Project description
Advancing electrolysis for sustainable industry
Electrolysis technologies are essential for reducing carbon emissions in European industries, but they face significant challenges in cost, efficiency and scalability. The EU-funded ELECTROLIFE project tackles these issues by investigating electrolyser degradation mechanisms, aiming to improve efficiency and reduce critical material usage. Through testing, simulations and prototyping, ELECTROLIFE aims for a 40 % cost reduction for alkaline electrolysers and proton exchange membrane electrolysers, and a 70 % reduction for anion exchange membrane electrolysers and solid oxide electrolysers. This promises scalable, recyclable and durable solutions, poised to transform European production capacity. With its emphasis on predictive control systems and online data centres, ELECTROLIFE is driving the advancement of green hydrogen technologies for a sustainable future.
Objective
The ELECTROLIFE project aims to be a booster to enable the use of green hydrogen technologies to support decarbonization of European global industry. Currently, electrolysis technologies suffer from limitations in terms of cost, efficiency, stability, scalability, and recyclability. This is mainly due to the lack of understanding and identification of electrolyzer degradation mechanisms and improvement of current cell performance. ELECTROLIFE aims to increase the efficiency performance of electrolyzers by reducing the use of critical materials and extending the useful life of these systems. These goals will be achieved through test campaigns to identify multiple degradation mechanisms on multiple scales, multiphysics simulations with superimposed degradation mechanisms, prototyping of cells and stack components, and construction of dedicated test benches. The type of testing will be harmonized through dedicated protocols, and test results will be processed and made available through dedicated online data centers. In addition, diagnostic and stack health models will be developed to reduce the degradation rate, enabling the implementation of predictive control systems. ELECTROLIFE will demonstrate the implementation of durable stacks using relevant experimental methods through the production of high-performance technologies with minimal CRM content, enabling scalability and recyclability. ELECTROLIFE is expected to reduce the average cost of ownership of the electrolyzers by 40% for AEL and PEMEL and by 70% for AEMEL and SOEL. These achievements will enable utilization of the innovations developed by ELECTROLIFE, reaching 15% of European production capacity (corresponding to about +3GW/a - IEA 2022).
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcontrol systems
- natural scienceschemical scienceselectrochemistryelectrolysis
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputational sciencemultiphysics
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energyhydrogen energy
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.2.5 - Climate, Energy and Mobility Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-JU-RIA - HORIZON JU Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
10129 Torino
Italy