The WINNER project will develop an efficient and durable technology platform based on electrochemical proton conducting ceramic (PCC) cells designed for unlocking a path towards commercially viable production, extraction, purification and compression of hydrogen at small to medium scale. This will be demonstrated in WINNER in three applications: ammonia cracking, dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons, and reversible steam electrolysis. By such, WINNER will create innovative solutions for flexible, secure and profitable storage and utilization of energy in the form of hydrogen and green ammonia, electrification of the chemical industry and sectors coupling. The WINNER project builds on the pioneering multidisciplinary expertise of world leading partners in the fields of proton conducting ceramic (PCC) materials and technologies to combine materials science, multi-scale multi-physics modelling and advanced in-situ and operando characterisation methods to unveil unprecedent performance of tubular PCC cells assembled in a flexible multi-tube module operating at industrially relevant conditions. WINNER will develop innovative cell architectures with multifunctional electrodes and a novel pressure-less current collection system using eco-friendly and scalable manufacturing routes. These activities will be steered by a novel multi-scale multi-physics modelling platform and enhanced experimentation methodologies. These tools combined with advanced operando and in situ methods will serve at establishing correlations between performance and degradation mechanisms associated with both materials properties and interface's evolution upon operation. Testing of cells and modules will also be conducted to define performance and durability in various operation modes. Techno-economic assessment of the novel PCC processes will be conducted as well as Life Cycle Assessment. The project is coordinated by SINTEF with support from UiO, CSIC, DTU, SMT, CTMS, ENGIE, Shell.

qSOFC project combines leading European companies and research centres in stack manufacturing value-chain with two companies specialized in production automation and quality assurance to optimize the current stack manufacturing processes for mass production. Currently the state-of-the-art SOFC system capital expenditure (capex) is 7000…8000 €/kW of which stack is the single most expensive component. This proposal focuses on SOFC stack cost reduction and quality improvement by replacing manual labour in all key parts of the stack manufacturing process with automated manufacturing and quality control. This will lead to stack cost of 1000 €/kW and create a further cost reduction potential down to 500 €/kW at mass production (2000 MW/year). During the qSOFC project, key steps in cell and interconnect manufacturing and quality assurance will be optimized to enable mass-manufacturing. This will include development and validation of high-speed cell-manufacturing process, automated 3D machine vision inspection method to detect defects in cell manufacturing and automated leak-tightness detection of laser-welded/brazed interconnect-assemblies. The project is based on the products of its' industrial partners in stack-manufacturing value-chain (ElringKlinger, Elcogen AS, Elcogen Oy, Sandvik) and motivated by their interest to further ready their products into mass-manufacturing market. Two companies specialized in production automation and quality control (Müko, HaikuTech) provide their expertise to the project. The two research centres (VTT, ENEA) support these companies with their scientific background and validate the produced cells, interconnects and stacks. Effective exploitation and dissemination of resulting improved products, services, and know-how is a natural purpose of each partner and these actions are boosted by this project. This makes project results available also for other parties and increases competitiveness of the European fuel cell industry.

Lower costs and a better long-term stability are needed to accelerate commercialization of Solid Oxide Cell (SOC) technology. Among the enduring challenges is degradation related to the steel interconnect (IC) material and insufficient robustness of the contact between the IC and the cell. LOWCOST-IC will tackle these issues by developing, fabricating and demonstrating low-cost ICs and exceptionally tough contact layers for use in SOC stacks. Novel robust contact layers, utilizing the concept of reactive oxidative bonding, will substantially improve the mechanical contact between the cell and the interconnect, while ensuring a low and stable area specific resistance. The cost of SOC ICs will be reduced by combining cost-effective high volume steel grades with highly protective coatings. Large-scale mass manufacturing methods will be demonstrated for application of the coating by physical vapour deposition (PVD), for subsequent shaping of the ICs by hydroforming and finally for fast printing of contact layers by a drop-on-demand process. Novel computationally efficient stack models will together with hydroforming be customized to decrease the prototyping costs and thereby accelerate IC development. The new interconnect steels, coatings and contact layers will be implemented in the SOC stacks of two commercial manufacturers and undergo extensive testing in an industrially relevant environment. Finally, the cost-effectiveness of the proposed production route will be assessed and compared with existing production routes to facilitate a fast market entry of the project innovations. The overall effort will bring the technological solutions from their current TRL 3 to TRL 5. To achieve the optimum output, the LOWCOST-IC consortium comprises the entire interconnect and contact layer supply chain.

INSPIREWATER demonstrates a holistic approach for water management in the process industry using innovative technology solutions from European companies to increase water and resource efficiency in the process industry. This will put Europe as a leader on the world market for segments in industrial water treatment which will create new high skilled jobs in Europe. With extended collaboration between technology providers including innovative SME’s, world-wide active companies in the chemical and steel industries and research organizations, this project also contributes to the aims of the SPIRE SRA, the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on 'Water' and to the aims of the Commission’s Roadmap on Resource efficiency, supporting effective implementation of European directives and policies in the water management area. INSPIREWATER addresses non-technical barriers as well as technical, as innovation needs both components and demonstrates them in the steel and chemical industry. A flexible system for water management in industries that can be integrated to existing systems is worked out and demonstrated to facilitate implementation of technical innovations. Technical innovations in the area of selected membrane technologies, strong field magnetic particle separator, and a catalyst to prevent biofouling are demonstrated, including valorisation of waste heat. This will increase process water efficiency as well as resource, water and energy savings in the process industry. The development and demonstration work is combined with a strong emphasis on exploitation and dissemination. Specific exploitation strategies are developed for the different solutions in INSPIREWATER. Dissemination targets different target groups: Stakeholders in different process industry also beyond the involved ones, e.g. Pulp and paper, but also policy makers based on the findings of the project.

Europe’s industry is facing many challenges such as global competition and the big change towards energy and resource efficiency. topAM can contribute to these demands by development and application of novel processing routes for new oxide-dispersoid strengthened (ODS) alloys on FeCrAl, Ni and NiCu basis. Novel ODS materials offer a clear advantage for the process industry by manufacturing e.g. topology-optimized, sensor-integrated high temperature devices (gas burner heads, heat exchangers) that are exposed to aggressive environments. Alloy and process development will be targeted by an advanced integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach combining computational thermodynamics, microstructure and process simulation to contribute to save time, raw materials and increase the component’s lifetime. Physical alloy production will be realized by combining nanotechnologies to aggregate ODS composites with laser-powder bed fusion and post-processing. The ICME approach will be complemented by comprehensive materials characterization and intensive testing of components under industrially relevant in-service conditions. This strategy allows to gain a deeper understanding of the process-microstructure-properties relationships and to quantify the improved functionalities, properties and life cycle assessment. This will promote cost reduction, improved energy efficiency and superior properties combined with a significant lifetime increase. The consortium consists of users, materials suppliers and research institutes that are world leading in the fields relevant for this proposal, which guarantees efficient, high-level, application-oriented execution of topAM. The industrial project partners, in particular the SMEs, will achieve higher competitiveness due to their strategic position in the value chain of materials processing, e.g. powder production, to strengthen Europe's leading position in the emerging technology field of AM in a unique combination with ICME.