Hy-SPIRE

The Hy-SPIRE project aims at boosting the potential of SOEL by lowering the operating temperature below 700°C, and increasing its flexibility in order to fit with RES generation profiles. 

The objectives of the consortium are the following: 

• Scientific: development and manufacturing of a new generation of Solid Oxide Cells based on oxygen ion conductor (O-SOE); development a new generation of planar proton-conducting solid oxide electrolyser cells (P-SOEs); integration of metal- and electrode-supported SOE cells; understanding the influence of the applied manufacturing technique on the cell performance and durability: adjustment of the stack operation conditions to the flexible operation stemming from the fluctuation of RES; understanding the degradation mechanism and way to minimize their impact on the cell to achieve degradation equal to or lower than 0.75% per 1,000 h; enhancement of the cell properties achieve high current densities ca. 1.2 A/cm2; studies on the dynamic operation of the SOC stack and its fast ramping 

• Economic: performing techno-economic analysis, supported by the LCA; identification of barriers and required research directions to achieve SRIA objectives such as reduction of hydrogen production cost to 3 €/kg by 2030, reduction of CAPEX 520 €/(kg/kW) and OPEX 45 €/(kg/kW) 

• Social: designing and deploying of the communication, dissemination, and exploitation plan; a set of activities during and after the ending of the project to implement project novelties to the market; promoting and exploiting of the project’s outcomes to maximise the impact on target groups; communicating the key information on the project to multiple stakeholder groups comprising the scientific community, policymakers and the public as well the potential users from various industries; actively attending relevant conferences of Clean Hydrogen Partnership, FCH, scientific, as well as industrial community and also organizing workshops and topical sessions focused on the advances and novelties developed within the project

ROLE OF FBK

FBK is responsible for WP4 (Dissemination, Exploitation, and Communication), but is involved in all other WPs with technical activities. 

In particular, the Center SE (i) provides a TEA addressing the recycling and end-of-life scenarios for the developed technology; (ii) takes care of the testing of the stack and the development of dedicated protocols and procedures for the testing activity.