Cost-effective materials for “power-to-chemical” technologies

Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2017 update

After the update to the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2017 of 25 July 2016,
the following updates were made:

• Open Access Data new provisions have been added for 2017 calls with an opening date on or after 26/07/2016.
   
• The introduction of the following parts have been modified:
  o MODELLING topics under call H2020-NMBP-2016-17
   
• The text for evaluation criteria, scoring, threshold and procedure has been clarified. 
   
• Other Action 5. Exploitation Strategy and Innovation Consultants (ESIC) has been cancelled.
  Other Action 6. Exploitation Strategy and Innovation Consultants (ESIC) has been changed to other action 5. Exploitation Support Services and the text has been revised.
   
• The following new actions have been added:
  o 8. Study on due diligence and risk assessment of KETs projects by investors
  o 9. Best practise for identifying and assessing the dual-use issues in enabling technologies research – preliminary study
  o 10. Addressing dual-use issues in enabling technologies research
   
• The indicative budget for call H2020-NMBP-2017 was increased to €253.87 million in 2017.

Topic Description

Energy storage will play a key role in enabling the EU to develop a low-carbon electricity system. Energy storage can supply more flexibility and balancing to the grid, providing a back up to intermittent renewable energy. Chemical energy storage is the transformation of electrical energy into chemical energy carriers. It consequently involves exchange of energy between different vectors of the energy system. Once the energy is transformed to chemicals the concept opens for many ways to use the primary electric energy, e.g., for re-electrification, heating and mobility. For such chemical energy storage, hydrogen or chemicals are considered. In particular the production of chemicals (e.g. methanol, ethanol, methane and syngas amongst others) by co-electrolysis is very promising technology in which R&I efforts should result in a substantial increase of the efficiency of the processes.

Proposals should focus on the development of advanced materials, materials solutions or new chemistries, to up-scale the chemical storage of energy in chemicals or hydrogen to economically viable levels. The proposals should select one or more of the following subjects:

• The development of low cost advanced materials for solid state storage of hydrogen at low pressure, targeting at the same time improved storage density and cycling durability;
• The development of direct synthesis of chemicals from CO₂-H₂O co-electrolysis using materials and reactors made of sustainable, non-toxic and non-critical raw materials²;
• The development of efficient low cost photochemical water splitting reactors with optimized flow behaviour, as well as new catalysts with longer lifetimes;
• The optimization of low-cost electro-chemistries to separate and purify hydrocarbon streams.

The technical validation in an industrially relevant environment and economic viability of the proposed solutions should be addressed in the proposal.

This topic calls for proposals with focus on cost effective materials solutions for “power-to-chemical" technologies. A complementary topic with focus on using solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOEC) to convert renewable electricity into hydrogen and, via hydrogen, into other products is included in the 2015 Work Plan of the FCH Joint Undertaking (JU).

The implementation of this topic is intended to start at TRL 3 and target TRL 5.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The performance levels of the proposed materials solution(s) should be in line with those specified in relevant parts of the SET-Plan Integrated Roadmap and its Annexes, available at https://setis.ec.europa.eu/set-plan-process/integrated-roadmap-and-action-plan

• Significant increase of the durability under current and temperature cycling of co-electrolysis technology based on sustainable, non-toxic and non-critical raw materials;
• Alleviation of geographical constraints for low carbon energy production with increased efficiencies at a reduced cost;
• Reduction of the barriers to increase the penetration rate of distributed and/or intermittent renewable energy sources.

Proposals should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the Introduction to the LEIT part of this Work Programme.