Development and implementation of online monitoring and diagnostic tools for electrolysers
HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-01-04
General information
Programme
Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Call
HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024 (HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024)
Type of Action
HORIZON-JU-RIA HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
Type of MGA
HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]
Open for Submission
Deadline Model
single-stage
Opening Date
18 January 2024
Deadline Date
17 April 2024 17:00:00 Brussels time
Topic Description
Expected Outcome:
The implementation of GW-scale hydrogen production through water electrolysis is being planned within the next decade. Coupling of these installations with fluctuating renewable energy sources (RES) is increasingly attracting interest due to the imminent decarbonisation of the electrical energy system. To ensure long lifetime even during transient operation, and hence low cost of ownership, tools for monitoring, diagnostics, and control are needed to optimise operation and detect fault conditions at an early stage. Such tools have been demonstrated in research labs and have been part of several EU projects paving the way for the implementation of new methodologies within commercial systems embedding high-temperature (DESIGN, DIAMOND, INSIGHT, REACTT, a.o.) and low-temperature systems (D-CODE, SAPPHIRE, INSIDE, HEALTH-CODE, RUBY, a.o.). All of these projects focused on fuel cells with the exception of INSIDE and REACTT which looked at electrolysers, and these systems have not yet been demonstrated and integrated into electrolyser systems of industrially relevant scale (> 100 kW). In addition, robust methodologies for interpretation need to be developed and validated specifically for electrolysis, both in a representative embedded hardware for the algorithms and monitoring, and in a representative industrial system.
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Providing new product ideas and solutions addressing monitoring and diagnostics of electrolysis systems, including hardware and software.
- Contributing to securing safe operation of large-scale systems such as AEL, PEMEL, SOEL, and AEMEL and reduce the cost of ownership. [AEL: alkaline electrolyser, PEMEL: Proton exchange membrane electrolyser, SOEL: solid oxide electrolyser, AEMEL: Anion Exchange Membrane Electrolyser]
- Contributing to extending the lifetime of electrolysers, namely under fluctuating electricity input conditions.
Project results are expected to contribute to the following objectives of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA:
- Reducing electrolyser OPEX;
- Improving dynamic operation and efficiency, with high durability and reliability, especially when operating dynamically;
- Demonstrate the value of electrolysers for the power system through their ability to provide flexibility and allow higher integration of renewables;
- Increasing the scale of deployment;
- Develop tools and methods for monitoring, diagnostics and control of electrolyser systems.
KPIs that should be addressed by this topic:
- Prediction of higher than 95% of fault detection and isolation (FDI).
- Cost of monitoring and diagnostic system should be limited no more than 3% of system cost:
- AEL: €24/(kgH2/d) or €12/kW
- PEMEL: €30/(kgH2/d) or €15/kW
- SOEL: €24/(kgH2/d) or €15,6/kW
- AEMEL: €18/(kgH2/d) or €9/kW
- Contribute to reduce degradation:
- AEL: 0.10%/1000 hrs
- PEMEL: 0.12%/1000 hrs
- SOEL: 0.50%/1000 hrs
- AEMEL: 0.50%/1000hrs
- Improve reliability towards the target of 99%
Scope:
In previous projects [See detailed list in the expected outcome section], proof of concepts of smart sensing technologies and functionalities have been integrated into the Management System. The main objective is, thus, focused on the development of monitoring tools and diagnostic techniques integrated in an Electrolyser Management System (EMS) that can range from processing conventional signals to advanced techniques including Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). Physical and virtual sensor development should be addressed in the advanced solutions to be developed.
The scope of this topic is to further develop methods and tools for monitoring and diagnostics of electrolyser systems and demonstrate these at an industrially relevant scale (> 100 kW) on one electrolyser type. Such tools would help reduce OPEX by making dynamic operation more durable and reliable, reducing degradation on the system, and increasing the system efficiency. The commercial utilisation and exploitation should be clearly considered in the project.
Proposals should address the following:
- Develop a generic open-access monitoring and diagnostic platform that enables interoperability and thus allow for its utilisation by different electrolyser technologies;
- Identify suitable cell, stack and system level monitoring parameters which indicate a possible critical state of the cell/stack/module within the system;
- Develop reliable diagnostic algorithms to determine the remaining useful lifetime depending on the state of health of the cell components/cell/stack/module. Both physical model-based approaches and data-driven approaches are eligible;
- Develop the hardware for the implementation of these advanced Monitoring, Diagnostic and Lifetime Prediction tools that is able to interact with common control units and power electronics of the electrolyser system to trigger counter actions;
- Validate the diagnostic approach and the developed hardware for monitoring and lifetime prediction on at least two technologies (PEMEL, AEL, AEMEL or SOEL) in laboratory scale;
- Develop and propose strategies to sustain performance and improve durability of cells, stacks and systems for each tested technology. Demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy on short stack level or larger;
- Demonstrate functionality and resilience of the devices on electrolysers of power > 100 kW operated in representative or real conditions on at least one technology (PEM, AEL or SOEL), including fluctuating RES electricity input. Any demonstrator used in the proof-of-concept phase should already exist or be funded by other projects (TRL 6);
- Provide the prospect to integrate the tool for real time simultaneous monitoring of multiple stack and module key parameters and indicators. The EMS will receive output data in real-time from physical/virtual sensors of the EMS;
Proposals may address the following:
- Establish database of the measured experimental data to help future efforts into the development of new electrolyser operation schemes.
- Ensure the efficiency of the monitoring system in all kinds of environments.
Proposals are encouraged to explore synergies with projects within the metrology research programme run under the EURAMET research programmes EMPIR and EMRP (in particular on metrology for standardised seawater pHT measurements and metrology for ocean salinity and acidity).
For activities developing test protocols and procedures for the performance and durability assessment of electrolysers and fuel cell components, proposals should foresee a collaboration with JRC (see section 2.2.4.3 “Collaboration with JRC”), in order to support EU-wide harmonisation. Test activities should adopt the already published EU harmonised testing protocols (including Accelerated Stress Testing protocols) to benchmark performance and quantify progress at programme level.
For additional elements applicable to all topics please refer to section 2.2.3.2.
Activities
ties are expected to start at TRL 4 and achieve TRL 6 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.The JU est
imates that an EU contribution of maximum EUR 4.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed