The project 'Impulsé' unites seven national partners, 3 industrials and 4 universities covering different regions of France, in a theoretical and experimental development for the advancement of the technology using Pulse Electric Field sintering and/or association for materials fabrications. This technique, known as 'Frittage Flash' in France or as Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) internationally, has successfully been in operation at five French sites; two of them (PNF2/CNRS and Schneider Electric Industries) are involved in this project. Due to the power and success of the technique, it has witness a spectacular increase in demand all over the world. Although it is very well adapted for material preparations, there remain still many questions to be answered concerning the kinetics, mechanisms and optimization of conditions as well as aiming for singular products. One integral part of the project is to develop theoretical tools to unravel the missing information. A parallel experimental part will be undertaken to ensure the unification of the theoretical approach. Several materials of industrial use, as well as for domestic and research, will be studied with the aim of producing exact conditions for the optimization of the fabrication technique. The project aims at primarily developing high-yield, cost-effective and energy-conserving methods to provide our industries with the desired materials. For this purpose, developing the theoretical understandings of the processes (mechanism, kinetics, and optimization) should enhance our knowledge of this black-box technological tool. As such each participant, an expert in his own field, will contribute collectively and together we look forward to complement each other with one aim in mind - to bring a full comprehension of the SPS technique from laboratory level to industrial level. The project will be effected, through collaboration, at both the governmental and industrial sites using two of the oldest operating SPS sites in France.

H2REF-DEMO aims to further develop and scale up by a factor of 5 the innovative compression concept developed in H2REF, in order to address large vehicle refuelling applications requiring hydrogen to be dispensed at rates of hundreds of kg/h, such as bus fleet refuelling every evening at the bus depot, truck refuelling, and train refuelling. Thanks to demonstrating the process during one year for commercial 35 MPa refuelling of trucks, the project will bring to TRL7 the disruptive compression technology previously developed in the H2REF project and already validated for 70 MPa refuelling of light duty vehicles. Along with capacity scale-up, H2REF DEMO will focus on process optimisation, cost reduction and further durability testing, Full optimisation will be achieved by first developing a digital twin of the scaled-up process. Use of accumulators with shells in hoop wrapped steel (Type II), a suitable technology for 35 MPa refuelling, will allow to optimise costs. A thorough accelerated testing approach involving at least 500 hours of continuous operation, will allow to verify durability of the accumulators and the compression stages over the full range of operating conditions. The demonstrated system is expected to provide a peak dispensing capacity of 150 kg/h, amounting to 1200 kg/d with 8 hours of daily operation, with a targeted cost of 1200 €/(kg/d). The process is expected to reduce electricity consumption to 3.5 kWh/kg of dispensed hydrogen, from production on site at 2 MPa to vehicle tank at 42 MPa. The knowledge gained will allow subsequent development to focus on commercial product development for short term commercial deployment. A multi-disciplinary team, composed of 4 industrial companies and 3 RTOs, combining expertise in hydraulic power supply, in bladder accumulator, in process simulation, modelling process digital twins, in H2 refuelling and distribution stations is gathered in the consortium to reach the targeted KPIs of H2REF-DEMO.