GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

There are currently a number of challenges associated with the scale-up of large liquid hydrogen refuelling stations for the delivery of low-cost liquid hydrogen:

• Current liquid hydrogen low pressure pumping systems have not been demonstrated including mechanical construction to minimise thermal losses, the filtration and purging processes to deal with condensed particles, and high rotation speeds over extended periods;
• In a liquid hydrogen station, boil-off gas on is mainly expected to be generated during liquid hydrogen loading. This requires the management of significant quantities of low pressure, cold but valuable gaseous hydrogen.
• The integration and assembly of large-scale liquid hydrogen refuelling stations has not previously been demonstrated, given that liquid hydrogen handling difficulty increases with higher flowrates;
• There are no uniform standards and safety regulations for liquid hydrogen refuelling stations while communication and emergency mitigation protocols are still to be developed.

The following activities should be within the scope of this topic:

• Development of a demonstrator with proven scalability in railroad, aircraft or maritime applications;
• Provision of a techno-economic analysis of the performance of these systems including energy consumption (in kWh/kgH2), CAPEX, OPEX;
• Development of a model to forecast boil-off gas generation during operations;
• Development of a metrology system or methodology for measuring or evaluating the quality and quantity of delivered hydrogen (ortho-para content, temperature, pressure). Proposals are expected to collaborate and explore synergies with the activities of EURAMET’s European Metrology Networks.
• Development of a methodology to evaluate hydrogen emissions (including leakage);
• Development of operations protocols, including for fuelling, venting or flaring, stand-by and emergency;
• Evaluate the life cycle environmental performance of the system.

This topic is expected to contribute to EU competitiveness and industrial leadership by supporting a European value chain for hydrogen and fuel cell systems and components.