HyScaling: Advancing green hydrogen in the energy transition

In the early stages of the energy transition, green hydrogen plays a crucial role as both a feedstock and an energy carrier. Currently, most hydrogen is produced from natural gas, a fossil source. However, green hydrogen is made by electrolysis of water using renewable electricity. Since the climate agreement, there has been a consensus that green hydrogen is essential. To meet the large demand for hydrogen, we have seized the opportunity to develop a home-grown manufacturing industry to produce this green hydrogen. Through the HyScaling consortium, a partnership within the Hydrohub Innovation Program, we aim to position the Dutch high-tech sector as a leader in the production of more efficient and cost-effective electrolysers.

Over the past three years, the HyScaling project has focused on these 2 objectives. Together with 29 innovative companies, SMEs, Universities and CROs, HyScaling has paved the way for manufacturing innovation on technology development and integration. A common thread throughout the project was created by a set of green hydrogen use cases, realistic application scenarios to guide the project and stay focused on real business applications. These use cases provide practical examples connecting hydrogen production with use at specific scales to understand the requirements for such specific contexts.

Examples include the large-scale production of hydrogen for steelmaking, solar-powered hydrogen production in Portugal as a case for supplying hydrogen from abroad, and the use of electrolysis for grid-balancing services. As the HyScaling project concludes, our program director Andreas Ten Cate reflects on the lessons learned and the results achieved, setting a vision for the next stage of developing a hydrogen economy.  

Laying the foundation of hydrogen in the energy transition 

“To envision a future, it is essential to understand your starting point,” begins Andreas Ten Cate. “Our journey began in response to the broader objectives of the Climate Agreement, which drives the energy transition by emphasizing significant CO₂ emission reduction through the development of sustainable energy sources. As solar and wind driven renewable power varies in time, there will be moments of higher power production than demand. This portion of the sustainable electricity can be converted into green hydrogen. Hydrogen can be used as an energy carrier, but more importantly, also as a chemical feedstock for processes that aim to recycle waste streams back into new products. This makes hydrogen a critical component of our sustainable future.” 

 “One of our key initiatives was the GigaWatt project launched by ISPT. In this project, we tried to imagine what large-scale electrolysis in any of the five main industrial clusters in the Netherlands would look like. This resulted in an advanced design for a 1-gigawatt green hydrogen plant.“

Key insights and strategic vision for HyScaling project

“This project led to two insights that inspired us for the HyScaling project. Firstly, we identified that the global ambition for hydrogen production by electrolysis of 100 GW by 2030, in line with the Netherlands ambition of 3 to 4 GW as targeted in the National Climate agreement, implies a tremendous need and scale-up of electrolyser manufacturing. Second, we found that Gigawatt scale electrolysis probably makes the most sense in industrial parks, but also that this is not the only scale at which electrolysis plants will emerge. We specifically addressed a range of scales in our use cases to better understand what growth scenarios across scales might look like. This multi-scale approach ensures efficient integration of hydrogen across different sectors and applications, both centralized and decentralized, maximizing its impact on our sustainable energy landscape.” 

We saw the possibility of the Netherlands joining forces and pick up the initiative to play a significant role in developing electrolysers and systems that perform better, more efficiently, and at a lower cost

Seizing opportunities and defending our place in the market 

Andreas ten Cate continues by elaborating on the strategic approach to community building with manufacturing companies adopted in the HyScaling project: “We recognized that the global demand for hydrogen solutions offers significant opportunities for the Dutch manufacturing industry. With a strong manufacturing industry present in The Netherlands, we saw the possibility of the Netherlands joining forces and pick up the initiative to play a significant role in developing electrolysers and systems that perform better, more efficiently, and at a lower cost. To capitalize on this emerging market, we brought together various companies in the chain that were already working in or considering to work on hydrogen solutions. Everyone was eager to ride this trend. However, an integrated vision to link all these companies into one larger ecosystem was missing.” 

HyScaling focused on questions like:

• How can we improve electrolyser performance or costs by applying advanced coatings for better catalysis performance, lower Iridium loadings or better conductivity in bi-polar plates, or achieve a lower environmental footprint through novel PFAS-free membranes?
• What does it take to advance these technologies?
• Where are the opportunities for these technologies in different use cases?
• And how do all parts fit together to deliver complete systems with advanced elektrolyser stacks, power electronics, balance-of-plant and advanced process control?

Andreas ten Cate continues: “We built a community that brings innovations together across scales and technologies. For organizational purposes, we worked in two main teams: PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) and Alkaline. For PEM, for instance, we explored electrolyser development through novel membranes. Altering just one component affects the entire performance of the electrolyser. So in evaluating system performance we considered factors such as advanced stack and system design, conversion efficiency, durability and manufacturing costs. We aim to create products that last at least 10 years and maintain stable production.” 

Hydrogen production: the complexity and necessity of integration

“The examples mentioned symbolize a broader insight HyScaling has shown us: every link in the chain is valuable and necessary to create an end-product that is successfully integrated between its powersource and application. We are now learning that integration is much more complex than originally expected. Initially, expectations were that by 2030 we will find electrolysers in many places across society. However, this proved to be far from the truth. This trend is not only seen in the Netherlands, but globally. In Western Europe, we are now also learning that integration with grid connections and variable power prices leads to high costs. This presents new challenges where policy makers are needed so we can find answers together. So, you live and learn. We needed time to gather the building blocks and take steps to scale them up. This scaling process is slowly coming to fruition in the field. We’ve essentially set up a Dutch ecosystem incorporating all links of the manufacturing industry, and this integrated approach helps us move forward.”