Within the project a new highly efficient biomass CHP technology consisting of a fuel-flexible fixed-bed updraft gasifier, a novel compact gas cleaning system and a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) shall be developed for a capacity range of 1to 10 MW (total energy output). The technology shall distinguish itself by a wide fuel spectrum applicable (wood pellets, wood chips, SRC, selected agricultural fuels like agro-pellets, fruit stones/shells), high gross electric (40%) and overall (90%) efficiencies as well as equal-zero gaseous and PM emissions. The system shall consist of a fuel-flexible updraft gasification technology with ultra-low particulate matter and alkali metal concentrations in the product gas (which reduces the efforts for gas cleaning), an integrated high temperature gas cleaning approach for dust, HCl and S removal and tar cracking within one process step as well as a SOFC system which tolerates certain amounts of tars as fuel. It is expected to achieve at the end of the project a TRL of 5 and a MRL of at least 5. To fulfill these goals a methodology shall be applied which is divided into a technology development part (process simulations, computer aided design of the single units and the overall system, test plant construction, performance and evaluation of test runs, risk and safety analysis) as well as a technology assessment part covering techno-economic, environmental and overall impact assessments and market studies regarding the potentials for application. Moreover, a clear dissemination, exploitation and communication plan is available. The novel technology shall define a new milestone in terms of CHP efficiency and equal-zero emission technology in the medium-scale capacity range and shall contribute to a stronger and future-oriented EU energy supply based on renewables. Its fuel flexibility shall ensure high attractiveness and market application potential and thus strengthen the industrial base in the EU as well as the technological leadership.

The Design 2 service project aims at simplifying both residential and commercial fuel cell systems for easy, fast and save system service and maintenance. In order to make best use of lessons learned and available resources, this project jointly works on two distinguished technologies (PEMFC and SOFC) in two different markets (residential & extended UPS). Both SME manufacturers are committed to establish lean after-sales structures, a significant step towards mass manufacturing and deployment. Maintenance is one significant part of Total Cost of Ownership of FC systems. Pooling the operational experience of field test programs, such as ene.field and Callux, critical analysis will lead to a priority list of required technical changes. For cold Balance of Plant Components, joint efforts will focus on the desulphuriser and the water treatment system. Actions are taken for both simplified maintenance and extended durability for prolonged service intervals. Logistics for replacement component supply will be considered. For the hot component parts, the manufacturers work on their individual hot topics to adapt and simplify the design of the current units, e.g. to allow replacement of individual components instead of sub-units. A large decrease of costs impact is expected once individual stacks can be changed in a simple maintenance operation instead of complete sub-units. It is important that such operations can be performed by a significant pool of qualified installers. This is addressed by the elaboration of simple technical manuals that will be exposed to real-life practical technicians in training programs. These actions aim at decreasing the technical barrier to service systems. Finally, the improved BoP units will be validated by testing single and multiple units. Beyond the classical features of high efficiency and silent operation, this will also add values like flexibility and modularity of FC technologies with respect to individual customer requests.

The goal of 24_7 ZEN is to design and build a high performing 33/100kW scale rSOC power balancing plant and demonstrate its compatibility with the electricity and gas grids. The multidisciplinary consortium behind this project has been spearheading innovations in the energy management and are pioneers on the rSOC systems development. Together, they cover every step of the value chain from enhanced materials on the cell level (POLITO, FORTH, IREC), fully operational rSOC system (SP_CH, SP_IT, OST) fully integrated, plug and play ecosystem for grid interconnection (INER, BOS, CERTH), renewable energy generation (EUNICE), transmission system operator (DESFA) and international quality assurance (KIWA). The ecosystems’ ability to optimize efficient routes of Power to Gas to Power, using H2 or NG as fuel and inject H2 into the grid, transition in <30 minutes and round trip efficiency of 45% will be demonstrated while ensuring compliance with standards and safety regulations. Finally, the consortium count on well-connected organizations in the European hydrogen, electricity and grid services sector (HSLU, CLUBE) that ensures the dissemination of the developed new business models and practices for renewable energy storage, including new concepts for the delivery of green hydrogen. This consortium will develop and validate an ecosystem that can be efficiently scaled and replicated to multi-MW scale installations. Further knowledge on how to improve the performance of rSOC (degradation rates of 0.4%/kh for 1000h, current densities of 1.5A/cm2 in both modes) and make them more cost competitive (by reducing CAPEX from 6000€/kW to 3500€/kW) will be generated. At the end of the project, new and viable scenarios to provide grid balancing and supply green hydrogen will be presented by means of a deep techno-economic analysis. By advancing rSOC towards commercial exploitation, the renewable hydrogen deployment required for a climate neutral Europe will be one step closer.