HyPRO | Research on technical risks and cost reduction of green hydrogen

The HyPRO project greatly reduces costs by innovating for green hydrogen or hydrogen from residual streams. With a grant of € 34.5 million, the consortium will research more sustainable production of hydrogen by improving electrolysis and plasma technology. HyPRO is going to make a significant contribution to improving electrolysis technology, reducing the cost of green hydrogen and scaling up production.

Risks in implementing hydrogen production technology

The development of green hydrogen as a key catalyst of the energy transition is driven by ambitious goals and targets set by the European Commission, among others, as part of the Green Deal and the Repower Europe strategy. Achieving these goals is expected to reduce costs, resulting in positive business cases. Based on these targets, the market for electrolysis plants in Europe alone will be a multi-billion euro market. This will make it attractive for the European manufacturing industry to invest heavily in the technology.

However, the technology is not yet fully mature, leading to significant implementation risks and to much higher costs than estimated. Innovations throughout the value chain are needed to reduce these risks and lower costs. The HyPRO innovation project focuses on reducing (technical) risks along the entire value chain, which will have a substantial impact on the levelized cost of hydrogen.

Reducing the cost of hydrogen

HyPRO addresses key issues that can reduce risk in the implementation of hydrogen production technology, and thereby reduce the cost of hydrogen. These include predicting performance degradation under realistic operating conditions; developing scaling rules to accelerate the transition from the laboratory to the industrial environment; reducing risk in the supply chain by reducing reliance on scarce materials or materials that are less desirable from an environmental perspective.

HyPRO brings the entire value chain together

Technical risks are a significant part of the overall risk profile and play a role in the entire value chain. The HyPRO project brings together the entire value chain: from advanced materials and components, developers of electrolyzers, plasma reactors and complete systems. Completing the value chain are companies that will make and use hydrogen. HyPRO’s impressive consortium thus consists of 58 partners, including 17 universities, colleges and research institutes.

World market position for Dutch companies

Especially for the development of the products for manufacturing sustainable hydrogen, the presence of the entire value chain is of great importance, because it offers the possibility to jointly establish requirements and validation of components, which accelerates introduction to the market. HyPRO offers a unique opportunity for Dutch companies to gain a position in the global market with sustainable technology.

Hydrogen technologies in HyPRO

Because different markets for hydrogen have different requirements. HyPRO focuses on different technologies, such as high and low temperature electrolysis technology and plasma technology for cracking residual gases. The application is central to setting the targets set for the different technologies.

The main green and low-carbon hydrogen technologies in the HyPRO project are

• Alkaline water electrolysis
• PEM water electrolysis
• High-temperature solid oxide and protonic ceramic electrolysers
• Anion exchange membrane & new electrolysis technologies
• Electrically driven processes for residual gas valorization (plasma, microreactors)
• System integration

The HyPRO consortium

HyPRO is a unique consortium. It connects 17 leading research organizations in the Netherlands (10 universities, 2 colleges and 5 universities of applied sciences), 7 leading international end-users from the refinery, chemical and energy sectors and 34 high-tech companies covering the entire value chain. These high-tech companies are engaged in activities ranging from equipment development for the production of unique coating technologies to developers of key components, such as electrolysis stacks and/or Balance of Plant (BoP) systems.

Partners in the consortium

TNO, Utrecht University, Leiden University, TU Delft, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Maastricht University, TU Eindhoven, Radboud University, University of Amsterdam, University of Twente, Differ, Wageningen University, Saxion Hogeschool, Avans Hogeschool, Fontys Hogeschool, HAN, Hanzehogeschool Groningen, Total Energies, Shell, LYB, Johnsons Matthey, Braskem, RWE, Vatenfall, Eneco, VS Particle, Ionbond, Hauzer, Powall, SALD, SparkNano, Veco, BASF, Nanao Hybrids, FujiFilm, Teijin, Bosal Group, I-Qatalyst, Vitrite, VDL, NEWES, AVOXT, Circonica, Battolyser Systems, Bosch, Dr Ten, SolydEra, TOPSOE, Hyet, PRODRIVE, Sairem, On2Quest, Adsensys, Fluidwell, Sitech, Total Support, HyStream, FEV energy, ELEXEL.