At European Hydrogen Week in Brussels, Belgium, the Eurecat technology centre has showcased new developments in innovative technologies in the hydrogen value chain ranging from production, storage and distribution to its use as energy or raw material for this key vector for decarbonising industry and society.
Eurecat “is at the forefront of decarbonisation and leads the creation of standout tools for industry and mobility with innovative technologies which unlock the sustainable transition of businesses and their competitiveness,” said Pedro Nadal, head of Hydrogen Technologies at Eurecat.
Eurecat is also a member of joint strategic initiatives with the sector’s ecosystem such as the Hydrogen Valley of Catalonia and the H2CAT network for research into renewable hydrogen, which the technology centre coordinates and also had a booth at the fair.
In Brussels, Eurecat has been an active player in a leading event for hydrogen in Europe as part of the Hydrogen Europe Research association’s cluster where “it has showcased its cutting-edge laboratories and facilities available to companies to test and scale new technologies for producing, storing and converting hydrogen coupled with some of its primary innovations in this area,” noted Diogo Garcia, a researcher in Eurecat’s Printed Energy Devices Line.
Hydrogen is expected to play a crucial role in decarbonising industry, transport and the electricity industry in achieving the European Union’s goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. “This means the EU will continue to back research and innovation to maintain global leadership in fuel cell production, storage, supply and use technologies,” said Eduard Piqueras, head of European Programmes at Eurecat. “Eurecat is closely involved through EU Clean Hydrogen research and innovation partnerships in driving, developing and deploying a European value chain for innovative hydrogen technologies.”
In hydrogen production, Eurecat has presented at European Hydrogen Week solutions such as e-LEAF, recognised as a success story in the “Hydrogen Frontiers: The Future European Landscape” competition run at the fair by the Hydrogen Europe Research association. E-LEAF is a proton exchange membrane technology which harnesses high-efficiency printed technologies to get thin and flexible devices for producing hydrogen from water and converting it into fuel cells for hydrogen-powered vehicles, patented by Eurecat, which is applied in innovative renewable hydrogen production projects such as H-LEAF.
It has also showcased new technologies for producing hydrogen by pyrolysis and gasification from waste or from municipal or industrial wastewater in solar photocatalytic panels.
Likewise, it has unveiled new designs of bipolar plates for fuel cells manufactured by new stamping processes or 3D printing using titanium recovered from waste along with innovative coatings for these plates and new perfluorinated chemical-free membranes.
As for hydrogen storage, companies have had the chance to learn about solutions such as new innovative type IV tanks at its booth. This is a new kind of tank designed, manufactured and validated for storing hydrogen gas whose permeability properties have been improved for its use in the mobility sector, especially in the aeronautics industry where the lightness and safety features of the demonstrator developed as part of the Hidrogenia project make it ideal for these applications.
The technology centre has additionally outlined at European Hydrogen Week the European HYIELD project which will integrate new technologies such as digital twins to optimise processes for efficiently converting biogenic waste streams into sustainable, high-purity hydrogen at competitive rates, helping to decarbonise sectors including shipping, aviation and energy-intensive industries.
It has also set out the work done in the European GIANCE project in which Eurecat is researching and testing graphene-based recyclable solutions for a number of applications including hydrogen generation and storage systems.
It has further shared the results of the SunCoChem project, coordinated by Eurecat and coming under the sustainable chemistry concept, which has developed a reactor to manufacture chemicals from renewable energies tapping the capture of CO2 recovered from the chemical industry using solar power.