The fuel cells and hydrogen (FCH) industry has made considerable progress toward market deployment. However existing legal framework and administrative processes (LAPs) – covering areas such as planning, safety, installation and operation – only reflect use of incumbent technologies. The limited awareness of FCH technologies in LAPs, the lack of informed national and local administrations and the uncertainty on the legislation applicable to FCH technologies elicit delays and extra-costs, when they do not deter investors or clients. This project aims at tackling this major barrier to deployment as follows: • Systematically identifying and describing the LAPs applicable to FCH technologies in 18 national legal systems as well as in the EU proper legal system. • Assessing and quantifying LAP impacts in time and/or resource terms and identify those LAP constituting a legal barrier to deployment. • Comparing the 18 countries to identify best and bad practices • Raising awareness in the countries where a LAP creates a barrier to deployment. • Advocating targeted improvements in each of 18 countries + EU level • It will make all this work widely available through: (1) A unique online database allowing easy identification, description and assessment of LAPs by country and FCH application. (2) Policy papers by applications and by country with identification of best practice and recommendations for adapting LAP. (3) A series of national (18) and European (1) workshops with public authorities and investors. HyLAW sets up a National Association Alliance not just for the duration of the project, but for the long term consolidation of the sector under a single unified umbrella. By bringing together these national associations and all of Hydrogen Europe’s members, it’s the first time ever that the entire European FCH sector is brought together with a clear and common ambition.

The strategic goal of the ELYntegration Project is the design and engineering of a robust, flexible, efficient and cost-competitive single stack Multimegawatt High Pressure Alkaline Water Electrolysis of 4,5 T H2/day capable to provide cutting-edge operational capabilities under highly dynamic power supplies expected in the frame of generation/ transmission/ distribution scenarios integrating high renewable energies (RE) shares. The final design of the MW HP AWE will be achieved on the basis of the development, validation and demonstration of a HP AWE industrial prototype of 250 kW (250 HP AWE) (TRL 7) comprising: - cylindrical stack consisting of industrial size elementary cells (1,600 mm cell diameter) - balance of plant (BOP) - power electronics - advanced communication & control system In the early phase of the development process, great attention will be brought to the identification of end-user’s needs and relevant/critical operational requirements. The target behaviour of the industrial prototype will be thoroughly demonstrated in an operational environment reflecting different on-grid integration schemes using power facilities already available to the Consortium (notably, 635 kW wind and 100 kW photovoltaic power plants). As previously mentioned, the successful demonstration of the industrial prototype will be paving the way towards the implementation and the commercial deployment of the 4.5 T H2/day HP AWE technology in the frame of large scale demonstration projects which shall be the next step after the conclusion of ELYntegration.

eGHOST will be the first milestone for the development of eco-design criteria in the European hydrogen sector. Two guidelines for specific FCH products (PEMFC stack and SOE) will be completed and the lessons learnt will be integrated in the eGHOST White Book, a reference guidance book for any future eco-design project of FCH systems. eGHOST aims to support the whole FCH sector. Therefore, it addresses the eco-(re)design of mature products (PEMFC stack) and those emerging with TRLs around 5 (SOE) in such a way that sustainable design criteria can be incorporated since the earliest stages of the product development. eGHOST will go a step beyond the current state of the art of eco-design by incorporating eco-efficiency assessment, i.e. combining environmental and economic decision-making tools, and social life cycle assessment to determine the social impacts of the products. Therefore, eGHOST proposes a sustainable (re)design looking at minimizing the economic, environmental and social impacts of the products along their life cycle. Other innovation will be the use of prospective approach for the life cycle thinking tools used to assess the products performance, i.e. to determine the impacts of all the life cycle stages of the product at the time of its occurence. This is required to get valid information of those products at early stages of development. The European Commission considers eco-design as a key factor to fulfil its commitment to a climate-neutral and circular economy in 2050 as identified in different documents (EU Green Deal, New Industrial Strategy for Europe, Circular Economy Directive…). eGHOST will contribute to positioning FCH in this context by developing the first preparatory study of a hydrogen product under the guiding principles of the Eco-design Directive. As well, eGHOST will improve the understanding of FCH technologies as a sustainable investment under the EU Taxonomy, and will enhance Corporate Social Responsibility studies.

SPOTLIGHT’s key objective is to develop and validate a photonic device and chemical process concept for the sunlight-powered conversion of CO2 and green H2 to the chemical fuel methane (CH4, Sabatier process), and to carbon monoxide (CO, reverse water gas shift process) as starting material for production of the chemical fuel methanol (CH3OH). Both CH4 and CH3OH are compatible with our current infrastructure, and suited for multiple applications such as car fuel, energy storage, and starting material for the production of valuable chemicals. SPOTLIGHT’s photonic device will comprise a transparent flow reactor, optimized for light incoupling in the catalyst bed. Furthermore, it will comprise secondary solar optics to concentrate natural sunlight and project it onto the reactor, and an energy efficient LED light source to ensure continuous 24/7 operation. SPOTLIGHT’s catalysts will be plasmonic catalysts, capable of absorbing the entire solar spectrum. The space-time-yield achieved to date with these catalysts in the Sabatier and rWGS process are > 104 times higher than for conventional semiconductor catalysts. This makes the concept technically feasible for scale up without excessive land use, and makes it economically much more attractive because of strongly reduced capital expenditures. SPOTLIGHT’s photonic device and process concept are perfectly suited for CO2 sources up to 1 Mt p.a., which makes them complementary to existing large scale CCU processes. For the EU, we estimate that the annual CO2 reduction through use of SPOTLIGHT’s technology is maximized to 800 Mt, which is approximately 18% of the current annual total. This could generate an amount of CH4 produced in the EU which equals 14.5 EJ of energy, corresponding to 21% of the EU’s current annual energy use, and representing a value of € 393 bil. Ergo, SPOTLIGHT’s technology reduces the dependence of the EU on non-EU countries for its energy supply, and initiates a new multi-billion industry.