Renewable hydrogen (RH2) for a cleaner and better society

Hydrogen (H2) at large scale is identified as a necessary measure to reduce and even eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. It has therefore an important role to play in meeting societal challenges for secure, clean and efficient energy as well as smart, green and integrated energy systems.

The potential annual revenue of a European H2 market is estimated at €820b by 2050, providing 5.4m jobs, and abating 560m tonnes of CO2 annually. Thus, to facilitate the advancement of the emerging hydrogen economy it is imperative to support innovative H2 generation technologies.

Due to their high efficiency, flexibility and versatility, electrochemical water splitting technologies for hydrogen generation will play a key role in meeting EU and Paris Agreement´s climate change targets. Furthermore, there is a great potential enabling technology for renewable energy systems (RES) by increasing the penetration of wind and solar farms that can produce clean hydrogen intermittently.

An evolving energy mix requires new low-cost, efficient and durable H2 production technologies to improve competitiveness, and therefore innovations in the area of advanced water splitting electrochemical devices are required.

Relevant competency

The Renewable Hydrogen (RH2) Village requires a cross-disciplinary approach and students from all programme studies:

• Material Sciences, Chemical Sciences and Engineering to design materials for water electrolysers
• Mathematical Modeling and Physics to predict water electrolyser’s material performance and new material structures
• Mechanical, Chemical and Process Engineering to design waters electrolysers’ components
• System Integrations and System Engineering to build and optimise the integration of water electrolysers with renewable energy systems
• Economics and Technology Management to address the economic perspective
• Social and Environmental Sciences
• Life Cycle Analysis of RH2 systems
• Market Studies
• Etc.

About the village

This research-based village will study the whole value chain of Renewable Hydrogen Technology, from (nano)materials, hydrogen membranes, hydrogen embrittlement, hydrogen storage, water electrolyser systems, system integration with Renewable Energy Systems (RES), hydrogen safety to technico-economic and life cycle analyses, with an emphasis on bottlenecks for the deployment of RH2 in various markets.

The RH2 Village involves desktop activities or/and experimental activities in the labs – some of which are in collaboration with the parallel village on “Hydrogen in Transportation”. You will be working with project/programme leaders/managers, researchers (Master & PhD students and PostDocs). If/when appropriate, the results findings will be published in peer-review international journals.

The main partner is “NTNU Team Hydrogen”* which is the largest R&D group in Scandinavia. Some research projects will involve SINTEF on some projects:

• GIANTLEAP
• HAOELUS
• SH2IFT - Safe and efficient hydrogen fuel handling and technology
• HITRA Energy Centre

Other external partners will be invited for seminars, such as Nel Hydrogen, TrønderEnergi, Hyon, Prototech, Glomfjord Hydrogen, Hystorsys, Nasjonalt vindenergisenter, ZEG Power, CerPoTech, Greenstat, Statkraft to name but a few, and other relevant international experts.

There is the possibility to work on a series of exciting projects run by “NTNU Team Hydrogen”:

• H2 Coop storage - “Development of tools enabling the deployment and management of a multi-energy Renewable Energy Community with hybrid storage”
• SANOCEAN - Probing the electronic properties of nickel oxide (NiO) as electrocatalyst for renewable and sustainable electrolytic hydrogen production

Here you can find a complete list of projects at "NTNU Team Hydrogen"

The students in the village will be able to cooperate with people from other subject areas towards the RH2. They will acquire the following skills:

• Effective communication
• Project planning
• Working in teams
• Decision making
• Problem solving
• Data handling 
• Writing reports, papers etc
• Presentation

They will also be able to answer the following Research Questions:

• Can we predict performing and durable low-cost materials (e.g. catalysts and electrodes) for water electrolysers?
• Can RH2 be economically feasible?
• Can Norway shift from an oil and gas industry to a hydrogen industry?
• Can Norway be a net exporter of hydrogen?
• Can RH2 production be centralised or decentralised?
• Can we produce RH2 cost effectively via wind, solar and any other renewable energy sources?
• How to solve water electrolyser technology problems?
• How can we decrease water electrolyser material and manufacturing costs?
• How can we better integrate water electrolysers to renewable energy systems?
• How to make the public aware about hydrogen and better engage with the general public and the industry, etc
   

About NTNU Hydrogen

In January 2019, NTNU formally established and implemented “NTNU Team Hydrogen”, in line with NTNU, Norway and the European Commission’s strategies on hydrogen. The team, the largest hydrogen R&D group in Norway, consists of world experts on hydrogen energy inc. professors (>35) and researchers (>55) from different disciplines, departments and faculties across NTNU that works within the hydrogen R&D value chain, from (nano)materials (inc. fuel cell, electrolyser and reformer catalysts), hydrogen membranes, hydrogen embrittlement, hydrogen storage, hydrogen/fuel cell/reformer systems, system integration, hydrogen safety to technico-economic and life cycle analyses. NTNU Team Hydrogen is the largest hydrogen R&D cluster in Scandinavia.

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