Development of cost effective and high-capacity compression solutions for hydrogen

Topic updates

24 April 2025

CALL UPDATE: PROPOSAL NUMBERS

Call HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025 has closed on the 23/04/2025.

212 proposals have been submitted.

The breakdown per topic is: 

HYDROGEN STORAGE AND DISTRIBUTION

-HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-02: 10 proposals 

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in August 2025.

15 April 2025

Notice to Applicants (15/04/2025)

Please note that we will no longer be accepting questions regarding the current call for proposals HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025. We appreciate your interest and encourage you to refer to the published documentation for any remaining clarifications.

15 April 2025Errata Notice - Topic HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-05

The correct text for topic HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-01-05 stipulates:

"Furthermore, project results are expected to contribute to the following KPIs, targeted at co-electrolyser scale, specific for three high temperature co-electrolysis technologies: Oxide and Proton conductive Solid Oxide electrolysers (SOEL, PCCEL) and Molten Carbonate Electrolyser (MCE):

Oxide conductive Solid Oxide electrolysers (SOEL)

Power to syngas efficiency: 0.9 kWLHV /kWe
Degradation in operating conditions: 0.8 %/1000h @1A/cm²
Unit cost: 500 €/kW
Proton Conductive Ceramic electrolysers (PCCEL)

Power to syngas efficiency: 0.9 kWLHV/ kWe
Degradation in operating conditions: 0.8 %/1000h @0.75A/cm²
Unit cost: 500 €/kW
Molten Carbonate electrolysers (MCE)

Power to syngas efficiency: 0.93 kWLHV/ kWe
Degradation in operating conditions: 0.5 %/1000h @0.5A/cm²
Unit cost: 500 €/kW
KPIs are defined for the main high temperature co-electrolysis techniques, derived from the SRIA and from results of previous EU funded projects."

03 April 2025

Errata Notice – Topic Conditions

We appreciate your attention to this information. Please be advised that the Topic Conditions are provided below, as they were not displayed correctly under each topic. These conditions apply to all topics across the entire call.

We kindly ask you to refer to the information below and in the AWP2025 to ensure compliance with the applicable requirements.

General conditions

1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

Page limit for Innovation Actions: For all Innovation Actions the page limit of the applications are 70 pages.

2. Eligible Countries
described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

3. Other Eligibility Conditions
described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].

In addition to the standard provisions, the following specific provisions in the model grant agreement will apply:

1. Lump Sum

This year’s call for proposals will take the form of lump sums as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021- 2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025).

Lump sums will be used across all topics in the Call 2025.

3. Subcontracting

For all topics: an additional obligation regarding subcontracting has been introduced, namely that subcontracted work may only be performed in target countries set out in the call conditions.

The beneficiaries must ensure that the subcontracted work is performed in the countries set out in the call conditions.

The target countries are all Member States of the European Union and all Associated Countries.

31 March 2025

The excel detailed budget table available in the submission system “Download Part B templates” section had outdated values for the SME owner unit cost category.

Today, the issue has been rectified and the template available is the correct version, containing up-to-date values for the SME owner unit cost category.

Please make sure you download and use the correct budget table in your submission.

For the applicants that have already submitted their proposals, please be aware that the system still allows you to edit and re-submit your proposal using the updated excel template.

Development of cost effective and high-capacity compression solutions for hydrogen

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025-02-02

Type of grant: Call for proposals

General information

Programme: Horizon Europe (HORIZON)

Call: HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025 (HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025)

Type of action: HORIZON-JU-RIA HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions

Type of MGA: HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]

Status: Forthcoming

Deadline model: single-stage

Planned Opening Date: 15 January 2025

Deadline dates: 23 April 2025 17:00 (Brussels time)

Topic description

Expected Outcome:

Cost-effective and high-capacity hydrogen compression in a wide pressure range is an important component for enabling fossil-price parity of green hydrogen for Power-to-X (PtX) and transport fuel onwards 2030. This calls for substantially reduced CAPEX and OPEX costs and improved efficiency and reliability for hydrogen compression compared to state-of-the-art, through pursuing new innovations and designs. This requires pioneering new design solutions to address the unique challenges of hydrogen compression, such as material degradation and leak tightness under high-pressure conditions and ensuring structural integrity to prevent component failures.

Innovations might include exploring novel design for currently used materials or the development of new materials resistant to hydrogen embrittlement and high-temperature hydrogen attack, and advanced leak detection and mitigation systems. Furthermore, innovations could include disruptive and breakthrough enhancements with a strong emphasis on solutions that can withstand varied operational stresses.

Previous EU-funded projects^[1] e.g electrochemical compression (PHAEDRUS^[2]), thermochemical compression (COSMHYC^[3], COSMHYC XL^[4] & COSMHYC DEMO^[5]), hydraulic boosters (H2Ref^[6] & H2Ref Demo^[7]), are helping to progress hydrogen compression towards achieving the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA 2024 targets. However, for hydrogen compression to contribute to enabling fossil-price parity a further stretch towards the SRIA 2030 targets is required.

Market segments such as Power-to-X (PtX) and transport fuel at the same time requires much higher compression capacities in a wide pressure range as a mean to reduce costs, compared to what is currently cost-feasible for state-of-the-art.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Development of innovative scalable hydrogen compression solutions;
• Enhancing European leadership on hydrogen infrastructure solution based on compression technologies;
• Accelerating the deployment, uptake and diffusion of European innovative compression technologies, through wide and early engagement with end-users, SMEs, start-ups, and regulatory & standardisation bodies;
• Lowering the costs of production of green hydrogen, thus accelerating the expansion of a hydrogen-based infrastructure (for which hydrogen compression is a key element).

Project results are expected to contribute to the following objectives and KPIs of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA:

• Inlet pressure: 30 bar or lower;
• Outlet pressure: up to 900 bar or higher;
• Minimum capacity: 150kg/hour or higher (30 bar inlet and 900 bar outlet);
• Electrical energy consumption including auxiliaries (steady inlet 30bar to steady outlet 900 bar): 3 kWh/kg;
• Mean Time Between Maintenance (MTBM) at 95% confidence level: 8,000 hours; If relevant consider the SRIA 2030 Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of 60,000 hours
• OPEX (maintenance): 0,2 €/kg with a roadmap to the SRIA 2030 target of 0,03 €/kg;
• CAPEX (30-900 bar 150kg/hour): 3,500€/kW (438 €/kg/day at 3kWh/kg and 150kg/hour).

Scope:

This topic aims at addressing the two-folded challenge of reducing hydrogen compression costs whilst at the same time leaping a substantial capacity increase and in a wide pressure range.

Proposals should develop highly disruptive compression technologies or achieve breakthrough on conventional compression technologies – or a combination of both novel and conventional technologies.

Proposals should develop a flexible hydrogen compression solution that is adaptable across a wide range of applications in order to capture aggregated market volume and resultant reduced costs. This should at least cover PtX applications in the range of 30-200bar (off-take from electrolysers/pipelines and supply for industrial gas applications) and 200-900bar for supply to Medium and Heavy-Duty (MHD) vehicle Hydrogen Refuelling Stations (HRS), compressors for pipeline feeding of H2 in the range of 30-200bar, as well as high pressure trailer filling facilities (500+bar).

To effectively integrate compression technologies into the required pressure range, it is also crucial to develop the required materials technology to address the unique challenges posed by the intake of hydrogen by the system components, potentially leading to degradation through mechanisms such as hydrogen embrittlement and high-temperature hydrogen attack. These challenges are exacerbated at high pressures. Developing a comprehensive understanding of how compressors deteriorate under real-world operating conditions is essential for achieving reliability and economic targets.

Proposals should cover the following elements:

• Development and operation of a full-scale hydrogen compressor prototype, in a relevant environment, for achieving TRL5 (e.g. test centre with simulated or real supply and off-take that resembles relevant PtX and MHD HRS applications being targeted);
• The compressor solution should feature a design that allows for flexible adaption to accommodate different pressure and capacity ranges in order to maximise potential following commercial market volume;
• Compatibility of the hydrogen compression solution with liquid hydrogen supply in the case of MHD HRS applications should be considered – e.g. capturing gaseous hydrogen outlet from conventional liquid supply setups.

The compression solution should prove the ability to achieve the capacity and targets relevant for the market applications being targeted by the proposal. Targets outlined for this topic use the HRS application as baseline, where at least 150 kg/h (3,6 tons/day) capacity in the pressure range of 30-900 bar, and 5000 kg/h for pipelines transport. This will be required to enable use in HRSs with sufficient capacities for fast fueling of MHD vehicles. The pressure range and capacity would also support various PtX market segments such as electrolyser/pipeline off-take, industrial gas use and high-pressure trailer filling facilities. Proposals may also choose to target achieving of compressor direct filling.

Proposals should include development activities targeting compressor designs with high capacity (2.5 tons/day) e.g. through higher compression ratios, increased operation speed or other relevant means.

Proposals may however choose to target an outlet pressure lower than 900 bar e.g. if focusing on specific market applications where solutions are missing or too costly.

Despite increasing of capacity likely will stretch the physical design parameters, energy efficiency and reliability is to be improved at the same time. This may be done by e.g. exploring use of new or novel materials and/or coatings with reduced friction and longer lifetime and/or reducing wear and increasing efficiency by means of cooling, or by developing non-mechanical hydrogen compression solutions.

Proposals should include thorough testing of a full-scale (or reduced-scale for early-stage technologies) compression prototype in an operational environment that is adequate for achieving TRL5 (or higher) and validate reaching of targets. Operation in a test center should resemble real conditions for supply/off-take in PtX market segments and MHD HRSs including relevant start/stop conditions and fluctuating inlet/outlet pressures, potentially using new monitoring and sensor techniques. Whereas 8,000 hours of MTBM may not realistically be achieved during the test period of a project, the potential for achieving the target should be substantiated as part of the test efforts. Proposals may also consider the SRIA 2030 Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) target of 60,000 hours if this can be quantified as part of the project at the targeted TRL level.

Proposals should substantiate that an OPEX level of 0,2 €/kg can be achieved for the compression solution and should develop a roadmap towards reaching of the SRIA 2030 target of 0,03 €/kg beyond the project.

Requirements or guidelines from European and International hydrogen standardisation bodies relevant for hydrogen compression should be considered for the activities to be undertaken. In addition, proposals may include a technical simulation-based analysis of the integration of the developed flexible hydrogen compression into the future hydrogen infrastructure (e.g. gas grid and caverns) if relevant for the market applications being addressed.

Whereas proposals are to achieve minimum TRL5 only, efforts should also be included on planning and preparing following activities that can further advance the compression solution eventually to a market ready product. Consortium behind a proposal should include stakeholders capable of and with plans for a further advancement and market introduction.

Proposals are encouraged to explore synergies with projects within the metrology research programme run under the EURAMET research programme, in particular projects DECARB^[8] and Met4H2 ^[9]. These projects are working on development of leak detection measurement standards and method, what may be required to evaluate any hydrogen impurities the compression step may introduce.

For additional elements applicable to all topics please refer to section 2.2.3.2

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.

The JU estimates that an EU contribution of maximum EUR 5.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2025 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023–2025 which apply mutatis mutandis.

[1] Alternative technologies have already been investigated in the frame of previous of all these EU funded projects

[2] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/303418

[3] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/736122

[4] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/826182

[5] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101007173

[6] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/671463

[7] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101101517

[8] Metrology for decarbonising the gas grid (Decarb) https://www.euramet.org/european-metrology-networks/energy-gases/activities-impact/projects/project-details/project/metrology-for-decarbonising-the-gas-grid

[9] Metrology for the hydrogen supply chain (Met4H2) https://www.euramet.org/european-metrology-networks/energy-gases/activities-impact/projects/project-details/project/metrology-for-the-hydrogen-supply-chain

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