The H2HEAT project is all about making green hydrogen for heating a practical reality. It’s not just about ideas; it’s about putting them into action. We’re taking the lab experiments and turning them into real-world solutions.

Ambition and progress beyond state of the art 

H2HEAT will contribute substantially to advancing the concept of green H2 for heating (and O2) both in terms of “idea to application” and “lab to market“.

Electrolyser Advances

Alkaline based electrolysers are more mature when compared with proton (PEM) or anion (AEM) exchange membrane electrolysers. However, they typically employ expensive electrode precious metal materials resulting in cost inefficiencies and likely increasing future costs.

Stargate Hydrogen is developing advanced alkaline electrolysers based on nanoceramic active materials. The use of novel materials allows Stargate to achieve performance that is on par with widely used precious metal-based electrolysers (both PEM and precious metal-based alkaline), yet without the use of precious metals. It will be demonstrated that the materials that Stargate utilizes in its novel cells and stacks can achieve electric power consumption of 45 kWh/kg H2 at the high-efficiency operating point. Quantitatively, Stargate electrodes will demonstrate electrolysis current ≥50x higher than for IrO2 electrodes per EUR invested.

H2-CHP ADVANCES

There are currently no 100% H2-CHP installations in most European countries. There are none in the Canary Islands. An alternative are 100% H2 boilers, but they too at R&I stage. EU funded BIG HIT combined 12 5kW domestic H2 boilers to heat 2 schools. Progress is being made on blend-certified condensing boilers (typically 20% H2 with natural gas) which will eventually be replaced by pure hydrogen. Another route being pursued is the hydrogen hybrid heating system that combines a H2 boiler and heat pump e.g. trials at Port of Milford Haven.

The H2HEAT 100% H2-CHP developed by partner 2G will be the first real commercial scale H2-CHP.

The key innovations include:

• It is the first CHP to work with H2 stably, with high efficiency.
• Due to the fact that hydrogen has a very high detonation capacity, the mixture will take place inside the combustion chamber, so the gas will be injected through the Hoebiger injection valve, while the air will be compressed with the turbocharger. The process has to be very precise, therefore the injection valves will be electronically correlated with the cylinder head valves.

• It is essential to be able to control the production of electricity, and enable it quickly adapt to the consumer requirements.  The 2G H2-CHP will be able to start, stop and work at part load. It will to be able to work in island mode and achieve the maximum load possible in the minimum time.
• The CHP from 2G can operate with varying levels of gas purity compared to fuel cells which require pure H2.

INNOVATIVE H2-CHP/ HEAT PUMP COMBINED SYSTEM

H2HEAT is leading the way in reducing emissions in industrial heat supply, where low-temperature heat (<100 °C) is in high demand.

Heat pumps are well suited to reducing emissions in the supply of low temperature (<100 °C) heat, which, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), is the largest source of industrial heat demand today. A heat pump might typically have a Coefficient of Performance (COP) of 3-5 (or higher depending on the application), i.e. it can transfer 500 % more energy than it consumes. A high efficiency gas boiler might achieve a maximum of 95%. Therefore, the use of heat pumps instead of boilers is highly efficient and can contribute substantially to the carbon footprint reduction.  Currently, most heat pumps in commercial systems are powered by conventional energy.

The H2HEAT concept is to combine the H2-CHP with the heat pump. Partner 2G will complete this integration and include it as part of their product roadmap. This has multiple benefits to CHUIMI hospital. Firstly, the direct use of the energy produced by the CHP from H2 will make the heat generated 100% green. Secondly, it avoids the necessity for CHUIMI of having to integrate the H2-CHP into its electrical system, saving costs. Thirdly, the high COP of the heat pump combined with the H2-CHP heat output will come close to supplying all of CHUIMI heat requirement.

SOPHISTICATED CONTROL SYSTEM FOR H2 PRODUCTION, AND DIGITAL SIMULATIONS FOR PLANNING AND TESTING

Hybrid combinations of RE for H2 production are relatively nascent and certainly have not been trialled extensively in a real environment. Therefore the EMS and DSM required to cater electrically for such a complex mix is still relatively new. BIG HIT used  a combination of wind and tidal RE. However, at peak it only produced 50t p.a H2. Likewise, digital simulation systems for planning and testing multiple RE combinations for H2 production are at development stage.

H2HEAT partner will develop a highly innovative smart digital system that will be capable of managing combined  non-correlated multiple RE types and integrate with the H2 production via a sophisticated control system incorporating  smart EMS, DSM and SCADA. 

While H2HEAT will use OSW only, the control system will be future proofed to the PLOCAN vison for its research center of multiple RE sources and types.

There are increasing numbers of H2 projects using electrolysers for conversion of RE. However, there are only a limited number based on islands. Surf ‘n’ Turf, the predecessor of BIG HIT encountered corrosion on the electrolyser due to the prevailing conditions on the Orkney Islands. 

The  Oyster project will investigate the feasibility of combining an OSW turbine directly with an electrolyser and transporting renewable hydrogen to shore. However, it is a scale trial only with no commercial end consumer, not post project continuity.

H2HEAT will locate the H2 production facility  in the PLOCAN nearshore site. The choice of the onshore over the marine based RE equipment (Oyster) is to reduce maintenance cost  and increase efficiency in operations, particularly for multiple RE sources. The H2HEAT electrolysis system that will be installed will have to operate efficiently under occasionally difficult nearshore conditions while requiring minimal maintenance and still meet performance targets.

Learning from such EU island projects as BIG HIT, H2HEAT will investigate:

• improved coating protection systems used on equipment e.g. from the Oil and Gas industry (NORSOK M501, C5), 
• anti-corrosion material such as Xylan®.
• materials of construction  e.g. Stainless steel minimum grade 316
• galvanic isolation use when considering dissimilar materials of construction if appropriate