Coordinated call with India on waste to renewable hydrogen

In addition to renewable hydrogen produced by water electrolysis, there is a need to develop other technologies to cover the sustainable hydrogen demand of future society including industry, energy and transport. Agricultural, forest and industrial biogenic waste resources may offer significant potential for bio-based hydrogen production. R&I in this area has been identified as a priority by the EU-India Trade and Technology Council’s Working Group on Green and Clean Energy Technology to reinforce bilateral cooperation.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Renewable hydrogen producers and consumers based in the EU and India benefit from improved sustainability, safety, and affordability of renewable hydrogen production technologies from biogenic wastes (compared to existing ones);
• Technology developers based in the EU and India benefit from the expanded portfolio of renewable hydrogen production concepts through biogenic wastes use;
• Stakeholders on renewable hydrogen production based in the EU and India benefit from each other’s experience on renewable hydrogen from biogenic wastes;
• The cooperation between EU and India key researchers, institutions and industries which are active in biogenic waste to renewable hydrogen research is supported and strengthened.

The topic aims at developing innovative technologies to produce renewable hydrogen from biogenic wastes without recycling potential such as agricultural, forest and biogenic part of municipal wastes, sewage sludge and industrial waste waters, through biochemical and thermochemical Waste to renewable Hydrogen (W2rH) pathways. Focus will be on increasing the resource efficiency (carbon to hydrogen yield), reducing the GHG emissions or even generating a negative carbon footprint, decreasing environmental footprint for pollution and water consumption, and significantly reducing the production cost of hydrogen. Use of advanced catalysts to enhance primary conversion or upgrading of the intermediate from primary conversion or process intensification methods including advanced reactor technologies are in the scope. Utilisation of side streams such as aqueous and gaseous streams from primary conversion and/or their further conversion using biological, electrochemical, biochemical and/or catalytic technologies are in the scope as well. Development of feedstock pretreatment methods including sorting and post-treatment technologies required for hydrogen purification could be included in the projects.

An assessment of the feedstock cost supply at regional and local level suitable for the selected conversion technology and improvement of feedstock mobilisation patterns including via enabling technologies, such as digitalisation, should be performed. Preliminary economic feasibility as well as socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of the developed concept including assessing potential impacts on land use, water use, biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as social impacts, are expected to be assessed by the project on a life-cycle analysis basis. The production cost of the W2rH pathway should be compared to the state-of-the art production technologies of renewable hydrogen and with aim to be reduced. Projects should develop an overall process concept using advanced modelling techniques including flowsheet modelling for mass and energy flows.

Safety aspects and ways to increase safety concerning the hydrogen and other gaseous and system component leakages are expected to be addressed in a ‘hydrogen safety planning and management’ plan at the project level. Project developers are encouraged to contact the European Hydrogen Safety Panel (EHSP)^[1] established under the Clean Hydrogen Partnership to benefit from the developed experience in safety issues for hydrogen systems. The projects should lead to commercially viable and economically interesting pathways when upscaled.

Organic waste being not biogenic is not in the scope of the call.

The exploitation of results, including IPR, should be appropriately addressed in the proposal.

Joint work should benefit from the Indian and European experience in W2rH. Linked EU and Indian projects should have the same start date, the same duration, and same targets. Proposals must show clearly how the coordination among them will bring added scientific value. To ensure a project implementation that reflects a genuine EU-Indian cooperation, linked projects should include properly coordinated research activities between EU and India in the Work Plan of the two coordinated projects.

Proposals will include detailed explanations about tasks and effort of the coordinated proposal as a whole and cross-references to the e proposal for the linked project.

This topic aims at exploiting synergies between India and Europe in terms of scientific expertise and resources in topics related to W2rH production by implementing coordinated projects. Potential areas for collaboration (i.e. the coordinated part of the call) could include (but are not limited to) optimising fermentation and thermochemical processes, developing new catalysts, and improving separation techniques, as well as assessment of sustainability, technoeconomic feasibility and safety aspects including by using advanced process modelling.

The topic falls within the scope of the EU-India Strategic Partnership and the EU-India Trade and Technology Council in relation to waste to renewable hydrogen. For the purposes of this topic, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of the Government of India (MNRE) has made the required funding available for the coordinated projects of the Indian side^[2]. A balanced effort and matched budget between Europe and India regarding the two coordinated projects are expected.

In order to maximise synergies and increase the impact of the projects under this topic, proposals selected for funding under this topic will be required to participate in common networking and joint activities. Without the prerequisite to detail concrete joint activities, proposals should allocate a sufficient budget for the attendance of joint meetings periodically.

[1] https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/get-involved/european-hydrogen-safety-panel-0_en

[2] Ministry of New and Renewable Energy website: https://www.mnre.gov.in; MNRE R&D Portal: https://research.mnre.gov.in