Green Solar-to-propellant Water Propulsion: Green SWaP

Programme(s): HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Topic(s): HORIZON-EIC-2023-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01-05 - EIC Pathfinder Challenge: In-space solar energy harvesting for innovative space applications

Call for proposal: HORIZON-EIC-2023-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01

Funding Scheme: HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC Grants

Grant agreement ID: 101161583

Objective:

Similar to terrestrial photosynthesis, whereby plants convert solar energy into chemical energy through the capture of light energy, Green SWaP project seeks to harness this potentiality in space by converting water into highly valuable propellants, specifically hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen. Green SWaP will prove and validate a technology that will use solar energy to produce propellants from water for in-space green propulsion. It will be a crucial building block to enable innovative green propulsion solutions for in-space mobility, resulting in low-cost and eco-friendly innovative concepts. It is a novel approach, never developed for in-space mobility. Studies exist for terrestrial applications, but the space environment introduces additional constraints and dedicated challenges that the project will try to solve. The new technologies, based on innovative chemical processes, will harvest solar power to enable green propulsion. It is a plausible methodology because underlying technological concepts of producing/concentrating/storing hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen using solar energy have been proven (separately) even though for different constraints and conditions of use than in-space applications. Moreover, the combination of hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen has never been investigated in detail and the utilization of hydrogen for solar thermal propulsion is theoretically proven to be the most promising but it has never been developed as technology. The combination of these technologies will drastically increase future spacecrafts’ capabilities, facilitating renewable and self-sustainable in-space mobility. Optimisation concerning the quality and quantity of hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen produced onboard and the efficiency improvement will be fully explored.