Grants for Innovative Hydrogen and Solid Carbon Production

Funding Information

• The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 8.00 million – proposals requesting Clean Hydrogen JU contributions above this amount will not be evaluated.

Expected Outcomes

• This topic is expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
  • Development of advanced breakthrough technologies for the low-emission transformation of renewable sources, e.g., biogas, biomethane, solid wastes, biochars, and advanced feedstocks into hydrogen and solid carbon;
  • Strengthening the European technological capacity regarding the production of hydrogen and carbon, key pillars of a sustainable future, in the context of contributing to the CO2 emission reduction targets, and advancing to even potential negative emissions;
  • Increasing applications of e.g. biogas/biomethane, solid wastes, and advanced feedstocks applications, promoting its circular approach, and facilitating its sector coupling with the chemical, steel or material industries, among others;
  • Enhancing energy security by promoting European renewable/clean hydrogen production and reducing the dependency on foreign energy, as well as raw material, carbon imports;
  • Reducing geopolitical risks relating to the development of clean technologies, including hydrogen technologies, in the EU.

Eligible Projects

• Proposals are expected to show feasible significant advances (up to TRL 7) respect to previous Horizon Europe projects ColdPSark and Storming with a significant amount of carbon material production (for instance, > 50% of the initial carbon in the material input). Current running projects are in the right track and show the potential of the technology by the announced development up to TRL5 of non-thermal plasma, thermal catalytic, and microwave heated biomethane splitting into hydrogen and solid carbon.
• The presence of impurities in the inlet gas stream, for instance, in the biomethane or biogas input to the process, should play a role and thus are expected to be addressed in the proposal, discussing the need for upgrading through advanced techniques for separation, methanation or any other subprocess.
• Proposals should consider different feedstocks and routes to identify the most relevant ones from a technical and economical point of view as well as a techno-economic analysis of the technology at scale.
• Proposals are encouraged to explore synergies with projects within the metrology research programme run under the EURAMET research programme, in particular projects DECARB[7] and MetCCUS[8]. These projects support(ed) the development of a new infrastructure for purity assessment and for measurement of “low” emissions levels for hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
• As relevant, synergies should also be explored with the activities and projects supported by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking.
• Proposals are expected to demonstrate the contribution to EU competitiveness and industrial leadership of the activities to be funded including but not limited to the origin of the equipment and components as well infrastructure purchased and built during the project. These aspects will be evaluated and monitored during the project implementation.
• It is expected that Guarantees of origin (GOs) will be used to prove the renewable character of the hydrogen that is produced. In this respect consortium may seek out the issuance and subsequent cancellation of GOs from the relevant Member State issuing body and if that is not yet available the consortium may proceed with the issuance and cancellation of non-governmental certificates (e.g CertifHy).
• Proposals should provide a preliminary draft on ‘hydrogen safety planning and management’ at the project level, which will be further updated during project implementation.

For more information, visit European Commission.