Innovative hydrogen and solid carbon production from renewable gases/biogenic waste processes

There is an increasing interest in implementing a circular economy in the context of decarbonisation as a path to achieving a sustainable, productive system. Such a goal requires developing and implementing a great variety of new processes and innovation into subprocesses, including gas separation, purification, new reactors and catalyst, when needed. The transformation of renewable gases (such as biogas and biomethane), or solid biogenic wastes (as per Directive 2008/98/EC), as well as advanced feedstocks (as per Annex IX of Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001) into hydrogen and carbon, is one of those processes aiming at the utilisation of renewable resources to produce valuable products and decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial processes. The process to convert bio-feedstocks into hydrogen is also compatible with the regulatory targets into Fit-to-55 packages, within the Red transport, RefuelEU Aviation, and FuelEU Maritime GHG reduction targets. Decarbonisation costs (replacement of fossil-based hydrogen) by (Bio)Methane splitting and Biowaste-to-energy have been estimated below 180 €/tonCO2^[1]. Biogenic or waste C-feedstock input material in the process ending into carbon production implies a net carbon removal (negative GHG emissions).

Developing processes to convert these renewable sources into hydrogen and carbon will contribute to the evolution of the hydrogen economy, complementing other hydrogen production methods, complying with strategic lines of the European Commission, as is the case of the European Innovatin Council (EIC)^[2]. Hydrogen and solid carbon from renewable gases/biogenic wastes are embedded into a circular and life cycle thinking approach for the co-production of green carbon, chemicals, fertilisers and/or decarbonised materials, and avoiding or minimising the use of toxic and critical raw materials. It contributes to the capture cross sectorial coupling and system integration opportunities (i.e. energy systems, industrial symbiosis contributing to net-zero industrial districts, bio-wastes supply chains), complementing the advanced thermochemical processes for biomass upgrade to biocrude and green hydrogen. The energy to decompose hydrocarbons is thermodynamically much lower than the one needed to split water, showing a potential to reduce energy requirements for the production of hydrogen. A process with a high rate of complete decomposition into solid carbon reduces the need for conventional CO₂ capture, which is required for fossil/biomass steam reforming/gasification technologies for low-emission, and it can provide a reliable source of carbon as raw material for other industrial sectors, improving circularity of the whole chain. The transformation of bio-based gases into hydrogen will provide a decarbonised fuel, avoiding implementing CO₂ capture stages in industrial or energy processes. In addition, stress on current CO₂ sequestration sites will be reduced, potentially producing harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Renewable gases (bio-methane or any hydrocarbon produced by renewable sources such as bio-lifiquied petroleum gas (bio-LPG), synthetic natural gas and others) in Europe can play an important role in achieving the REPowerEU objectives as an endogenic resource with the potential to significantly reduce imports of natural gas or other hydrocarbons, both for the power sector and as a raw material for other industrial processes. Developing technologies to transform biogenic wastes/biogas/biomethane/renewable gases into hydrogen and high-value solid carbon will advance such resources' circularity and sector coupling potential. Depending on its properties, solid carbon may have various economic uses. For example, graphitic carbon is a critical raw material in the EU^[3] , with an expected demand in Europe of 3.7 Mton/y in 2050 for the development of a clean economy, including graphite electrodes, and fuel cells, with a strong dependence on non-EU countries. Other applications of solid carbon could target agriculture, energy production, animal farming, the building sector, decontamination, water treatment and many other industrial uses.

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.

The expected long-term outcomes of the technology in the proposals should include energy consumption lower than water electrolysis considering both heat and electricity, and energy consumption lower than 15 kWh/kgH₂. The capital cost per nominal daily production should be 1 k€/(kg/day) with a system operational cost close to 1.3 €/kgH₂^[4], leading to a levelized cost of hydrogen close to 3 €/kgH₂ by 2030.

Greenhouse gases emissions from technologies to convert renewable gases/biogas/waste to hydrogen and carbon is potentially negative, as in practice constitutes a carbon removal.(https://hydrogeneurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_H2E_CleanH2ProductionPathwaysReport.pdf ) As an outcome of the project, a clear confirmation of this feature should be quantified and confirmed.

Moreover, the role of waste/advanced feedstocks/biogas/biomethane in hydrogen and carbon production as raw material input for the chemical, steel, or other industries would be of paramount importance for the substitution/reduction of fossil hydrocarbons use in the industrial sector, as well as a supply chain for solid biogenic carbon, as a critical raw material for the development of a Net-Zero economy, as well as a complementary path for hydrogen production.

There are significant initiatives worldwide (USA, Canada, Europe,…) to advance in the technology of renewable gases/waste splitting into solid carbon and hydrogen announcing plants with capacities up to tons of H2 per day by high temperature electric heating plasma, plasmalysis, thermal pulsed methane pyrolysis, or microwaves, showing that the technology is within the parameters of an innovation action, as a previous step to be available for hydrogen valleys or full scale demonstration.

Methods to achieve such transformation are very diverse. They may be included in a family of processes of different nature comprising alternative energy transfer methods based on renewables (e.g., microwave, thermal and non-thermal plasma, induction, shockwave, radiation heating, direct thermal heating by several methods as Concentrated Solar Platform or molecular oxidation), and reactor designs (e.g., bubble column, plug, fluidised-bed, packed-bed, pulse tube, tubular, fluid wall, honeycomb monolith, moving carbon-bed, rotary kiln and others). These also involve combining these methods and the use or absence of catalysts, including innovative separation devices for enhanced purification and efficiency.

Proposals are expected to show feasible significant advances (up to TRL 7) respect to previous Horizon Europe projects ColdPSark^[5] and Storming^[6] 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. Such carbon material may be characterised to evaluate valuable applications, such as carbon black for the tyre industry, active carbon materials for batteries, electrodes and supercapacitors, metallurgic coke, agricultural application of carbonaceous materials, soil recovery, input material for high quality carbon products, as graphene or graphite, or any other of interest; that should be included into the evaluation of the technical, economic and societal impact of the proposal outcome.

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. Furthermore, a project should address the processing of suitable gas products, including separating and purifying hydrogen from undesirable by-products. Other technological issues, such as coke deposition, carbon-hydrogen separation, hydrogen-selectivity, catalyst deactivation and lifetime, catalyst regeneration, or quality of the products and their applications, are expected to be investigated and the practical solutions implemented at a large scale. The project should demonstrate a functional process producing 30 kgH₂/h (approx. 1 MWH₂ based on Low Heating Value (LHV)) with a purity acceptable for a direct application (99.97 % according to ISO 14687), or acceptable to H₂ network and industries (a purity above 98% for ISO/FDIS 14687 – Grade A)) and report significant testing time as to show operational availability and stability for industrial implementation (for instance, 3,000 h). If needed to derisk technology scale up, proposals are allowed to build intermediate steps (for instance, a facility around 100 kWH₂ under industrial relevant conditions) within the program to reach the TRL7 target.

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. Furthermore, proposals should also address sustainability and circularity aspects through a life cycle assessment (compatible with current efforts on carbon footprint analysis, for instance well-to-wheels as defined by Renewable Energy Directive (REDII)) of the proposed technology, which should demonstrate a significant reduction of CO₂ emissions (and negative in certain circumstances) for both hydrogen and carbon products (kgCO₂/kgH₂, kgCO₂/kgC) at large scale, including a cost analysis to see the impact of higher hydrogen purity requirements. Different feedstocks and methods may be included in the sustainability analysis. In addition, a critical raw material assessment should be considered if relevant. The integration with other processes should be showcased, particularly for hard-to-abate sectors. are outside the scope of this topic

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^[9]).

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 additional elements applicable to all topics please refer to section 2.2.3.2

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.

At least one partner in the consortium must be a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research.

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.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2025 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023–2025 which apply mutatis mutandis.

[1] https://hydrogeneurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_H2E_CleanH2ProductionPathwaysReport.pdf

[2] https://eic.ec.europa.eu/calls-proposals/eic-pathfinder-challenge-novel-routesgreen-hydrogen-production_en

[3] "European Commission, Critical materials for strategic technologies and sectors in the EU - a foresight study, 2020"

[4] Annex to GB decision no. CleanHydrogen-GB-2022-02, Table 7

[5] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101069931

[6] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101069690

[7] Metrology for decarbonising the gas grid (Decarb) https://www.euramet.org/european-metrology-networks/energy-gases/activities-impact/projects/project-details/project/metrology-for-decarbonising-the-gas-grid

[8] Metrology for CCUS (MetCCUS) https://www.euramet.org/european-metrology-networks/energy-gases/activities-impact/projects/project-details/project/metrology-support-for-carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage

[9] https://www.certifhy.eu