New platform supports the scale-up of green hydrogen

Green hydrogen is produced using renewable electricity and is considered a key component of a climate-neutral industry. In sectors such as chemicals, steel and refining, it can replace fossil feedstocks. In addition, it can contribute to addressing grid congestion by converting surplus renewable electricity into hydrogen, which can be stored and used at a later stage.

Electrolysers are required to produce green hydrogen. These installations convert water and electricity into hydrogen and oxygen. While the technology is developing rapidly, the transition from laboratory to large-scale application remains complex and costly. In particular, access to suitable testing facilities and the availability of shared standards remain limited.

Community of Practice for Electrolysis

The Community of Practice for Electrolysis (COPE) aims to address these challenges. The platform helps companies and researchers identify suitable testing facilities and stimulates collaboration on lifetime assessment and testing methodologies. It also aims to better connect existing testing sites, enabling more effective use of available infrastructure.

Hydrogen production facilities

'The scale-up of green hydrogen requires collaboration in testing across the entire value chain,' says Thijs de Groot, Professor of Electrochemical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. According to him, the sector is still in a development phase. 'In practice, many of the hydrogen plants currently being built can still be considered demonstration projects. What is happening there is essentially large-scale testing.'

According to De Groot, companies and researchers can accelerate learning by improving the sharing of knowledge and operational experience. 'Almost every large-scale electrolysis project takes longer than initially anticipated. Without sufficient sharing of knowledge and data, there is a risk of repeating the same challenges.'

He highlights the importance of further research into the lifetime, reliability and degradation of electrolysers. 'Universities cannot carry out long-term operational testing at the same scale as companies can with their installations. Without such data, it remains difficult to understand failure mechanisms and degradation rates.'

He also notes that there is significant scope for improvement in testing methodologies. 'There is not yet a widely accepted standard, and the field is still evolving.' COPE therefore aims to contribute to the harmonisation of testing protocols and improved collaboration between companies, knowledge institutions and existing initiatives such as HyPRO.

Mapping of testing facilities

In the coming period, COPE will focus on developing shared testing protocols, mapping available testing capacity and improving agreements on data exchange and collaboration. An initial inventory of existing testing facilities has already been published in a paper.

Towards a stronger testing ecosystem

According to GroenvermogenNL and TNO, collaboration is essential to enable the further development and deployment of green hydrogen. 'Scaling up requires more than technology alone,' says Ed Buddenbaum of GroenvermogenNL. 'It requires an ecosystem in which companies can test, learn and collaborate.'

Tara van Abkoude of TNO adds: 'No single party can develop this market alone. With COPE, we provide a platform where stakeholders can share knowledge and work together on implementation.'