CRI AND OTHER GAMER CONSORTIUM PARTNERS AIM TO CONQUER FOSSIL BASED HYDROGEN WITH GREEN HYDROGEN
Carbon Recycling International (CRI) is part of a consortium of European industrial partners and research centers that have been awarded a EUR 3 million grant under the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme to develop a new type of high-temperature electrolyzer with superior efficiency, using a novel solid electrolyte.
Inital work on the development of the innovative Tubular Proton Ceramic Electrolyzer technology was carried out by the consortium in the ELECTRA project that ended in 2017. In the second phase, entitled GAMER, promising results from ELECTRA will be exploited to design, build and operate a prototype device over a period of 2000 hours. The GAMER consortium will also build advanced computer modelling and simulation tools, enabling the consortium to explore alternative designs to take further steps towards introducing this electrolyzer technology to the market, and by doing so, create a breakthrough in the field.
Hydrogen electolyzers are used to decompose water into oxygen and hydrogen gas by passing an electric current through water. Total energy demand drops considerably when water is shifted from liquid to gas phase and development of high-temperature electrolysis has therefore received continuing attention. Higher operating temperatures, removal of water vapor from the hydrogen, instability and thermal stress remain significant challenges for the development of high-temperature electrolyzers. The Proton Ceramic Electrolyzer design aims to overcome these challenges.
The Proton Ceramic Electrolyzer will be thermally coupled to waste heat sources in industrial plants. The combination of the novel design and efficient heat integration will enable the system to achieve significantly higher combined electrical and heat efficiency than current alternatives. Although hydrogen from renewable electricity has a much lower carbon footprint than hydrogen obtained from petrochemical or natural gas sources, traditional industry has been reluctant to abandon the traditional methods for economic reasons. The Proton Ceramic Electrolyzer technology could enable industrial producers to reduce energy consumption in renewable hydrogen production, providing an even more competitive and environmentally sound alternative to the traditional fossil energy based hydrogen production method.
“We take great pride in our participation in the GAMER project, sharing our knowledge and experience to advance the science of green technology.“ said Sindri Sindrason, CEO of CRI. “Significant advances enabling us to achieve a cleaner future will require collaborative effort, which is why cooperation is one the core values of CRI“ Sindrason remarked. CRI also hopes to take advantage of the technology developed by the “GAMER“ consortium, in order to further increase competitiveness of CRI‘s innovative Emmissions-to-Liquid (ETL) process.