The key objective of the HyGrid project is the design, scale-up and demonstration at industrially relevant conditions a novel membrane based hybrid technology for the direct separation of hydrogen from natural gas grids. The focus of the project will be on the hydrogen separation through a combination of membranes, electrochemical separation and temperature swing adsorption to be able to decrease the total cost of hydrogen recovery. The project targets a pure hydrogen separation system with power and cost of < 5 kWh/kgH2 and < 1.5 €/kgH2. A pilot designed for 25 kg/day of hydrogen will be built and tested. To achieve this, HyGrid aims at developing novel hybrid system integrating three technologies for hydrogen purification integrated in a way that enhances the strengths of each of them: Membrane separation technology is employed for removing H2 from the “low H2 content” (e.g. 2-10 %) followed by electrochemical hydrogen separation (EHP ) optimal for the “very low H2 content” (e.g. <2 %) and finally temperature swing adsorption (TSA) technology to purify from humidity produced in both systems upstream. The objective is to give a robust proof of concept and validation of the new technology (TRL 5) by designing, building, operating and validating a prototype system tested at industrial relevant conditions for a continuous and transient loads. To keep the high NG grid storage capacity for H2, the separation system will target the highest hydrogen recovery. The project will describe and evaluate the system performance for the different pressure ranges within 0.03 to 80 bar (distribution to transmission) and test the concept at pilot scale in the 6-10 bar range. HyGrid will evaluate hydrogen quality production according to ISO 14687 in line not only with fuel cell vehicles (Type I Grade D) but also stationary applications (Type I Grade A) and hydrogen fueled ICE (Type I grade E category 3). A complete energy and cost analysis will be carried out in detail.

Project MEMPHYS, MEMbrane based Purification of HYdrogen System, targets the development of a stand-alone hydrogen purification system based on a scalable membrane hydrogen purification module. Applications are for instance hydrogen recovery from biomass fermentation, industrial pipelines, storage in underground caverns, and industrial waste gas streams. The consortium consists of six partners including two universities, two research institutes, and two companies from five different countries. The overall budget totals 2 M€, with individual budgets between 220 and 500 T€. This project will utilize an electrochemical hydrogen purification (EHP) system. EHP has proven to produce high purity hydrogen (5N) while maintaining low energy consumption because the purification and optional compression are electrochemical and isothermal processes. A low CAPEX for the EHP system is feasible due to the significant reductions of system costs that result from recent design improvements and market introductions of various electrochemical conversion systems such as hydrogen fuel cells. In detail, the purification process will be a two-step process. A catalyst-coated proton exchange membrane will be assisted by one selectively permeable polymer membrane. Standard catalysts are sensitive to impurities in the gas. Therefore, alternative anode catalysts for the EHP cell, an anti-poisoning strategy and an on board diagnostic system will be developed. The resulting MEMPHYS system will be multi-deployable for purification of a large variety of hydrogen sources. A valuable feature of the MEMPHYS system is the simultaneous compression of the purified hydrogen up to 200 bar, facilitating the transport and storage of the purified hydrogen. The MEMPHYS project offers the European Union an excellent chance to advance the expertise in electrochemical conversion systems on a continental level, while at the same time promoting the use and establishment of hydrogen based renewable energy systems.

The EU targets at replacing 10% of all transport fossil fuels with biofuels by 2020 to reduce the dependence on petroleum through the use of nationally, regionally or locally produced biofuels, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the EU is concerned with the questionable sustainability of the conventional biofuels and the unattractive production costs of second and third generation biofuels. The BioMates project aspires to contribute to the drastic increase of non-food/feed biomass utilisation for the production of greener transportation fuels via an effective and sustainable new production pathway. The project will validate the proposed innovative technology which has the potential of over 49 million tons CO2-eq savings, at least 7% crude oil imports reduction which corresponds to over 7 billion € savings for EU, while indicating its socio-economic, environmental and health expected benefits. The main premise of the BioMates project is the cost-effective and decentralized valorization of residual (straw) and nonfood (Miscanthus) biomass for the production of bio-based products of over 99% bioenergy content. The bio-based products’ targeted market is the EU refining sector, utilizing them as a bio-based co-feed of reliable, standardizable properties for underlying conversion units, yielding high bio-content hybrid fuels which are compatible with conventional combustion systems. The BioMates approach is based on innovative non-food/feed biomass conversion technologies, including ablative fast pyrolysis and mild catalytic hydrotreating, while incorporating state-of-the-art renewable H2-production technology as well as optimal energy integration. The proposed pathway for decarbonizing the transportation fuels will be demonstrated via TRL5 units, allowing the development of an integrated, sustainability-driven business case encompassing commercial and social exploitation strategy.