Welcome
Welcome to the HYIELD project! In this first blog entry for the website, we would like to introduce readers to our backstory, the project and consortium, so that we get acquainted. And, most importantly, we want to explain why we think this project is relevant to you, be you a curious citizen, PhD research in thermo-chemical processes, or CEO of a global corporation.
How did we get here?
The project was conceived in early 2023 by an international group of academics and industry leaders working on technologies for the energy transition. Many in this group had collaborated in the past on different research and industrial projects, mostly focused on developing more effective solutions to convert biomass and waste into useful products and low-carbon energy carriers.
In January of that year, under the Horizon Europe programme, the EU’s principal framework for supporting Research and Innovation, the EU Clean Hydrogen Partnership published a call for proposals (HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2023-01-05) to develop a first-of-a-kind demonstration plant waste to hydrogen conversion, with a 10M€ grant up for grabs for one winner. Realising the alignment between this call and the group’s commercial and research interests, work began in haste to prepare a bid for the call. Missing expertise was brought in to meet this challenge and the project concept grew and evolved, until HYIELD was born.
Of the eight submissions made to that call, we were delighted to receive the news in the summer that our proposal had been the one accepted. In January 2024, exactly one year later, the consortium met in Barcelona for the Kick-off Meeting, and the project began.
What is the HYIELD project?
Research and Innovation projects can take many different forms. In the case of HYIELD, there are a few characteristics that set it apart from others.
- High Technology Readiness Level (TRL): This means that the technology is already proven at lab and pilot scale, and the next step is to scale-up to reach near industrial scale and test it with potential end users to prepare for commercial launch.
- Focus on a single integrated process: In our case, a waste to hydrogen plant. This differs from other projects that have several parallel lines of investigation.
- Well-detailed specifications and goals: HYIELD has relatively well-detailed specifications for the plant and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), set by Clean Hydrogen Europe. These include KPIs for both plant efficiency, as well as the cost of the plant and plant operation.
So, to summarise, HYIELD will build a near industrial scale waste-to-hydrogen demonstration plant and test this in industry to reach TRL8; it will involve a single, multi-stage integrated system, starting with dried and pre-processed waste at one end, and delivering high-purity hydrogen at the other end; and we aim to match or beat the performance and cost KPIs set by Clean Hydrogen Europe.
The objective of all this will be to demonstrate the efficient and economic conversion of biogenic waste (think food scraps or yard trimmings) into low or zero carbon hydrogen. Imagine turning your home leftovers into fuel for your car. That’s our goal, but at industrial scale. This is a big technical challenge, both in terms of technology development, integration, and control, as well as a major social and economic challenge, such as ensuring safety, quantifying emissions and their impact potential, and managing the administrative processes such as permitting and Green Hydrogen certification. Whilst large-scale projects of a similar nature have been realised before, including EcoPlanta, a waste gasification to methanol plant under development in the same region, HYIELD will be one of Europe’s first industrial-scale waste-to-hydrogen projects, utilizing a unique technological approach.
Who are we?
We are a consortium of 15 European partners from 6 countries, including research centres, technology developers, large industry and specialist consultants. Around half the consortium is based in Spain, which is also where the demonstration plant will be built and tested at CEMEX’s cement factory in Alcanar. The consortium has been assembled to bring together Europe’s best minds to realise this ambitious project. It includes experts in process engineering and modelling, industrial waste gasification and gas treatment, hydrogen separation and storage technology, digital twin development and business development.
Why is HYIELD relevant?
The simple answer is that the way we currently live is not sustainable and is causing long-lasting harm to our planet, which if not mitigated, will lead to poorer quality of life for humans as well as the rest of the natural world. Developing circular economies and new forms of clean energy is critical to addressing this problem. HYIELD aims to address both these issues. Initial calculations indicate that the technology can work and that it can deliver clean hydrogen at potentially half the cost of electrolysis, another method of producing hydrogen by splitting water using electricity. Reducing cost of clean hydrogen is critical to accelerate adoption by industry, helping the EU and the world move one small step closer to finding a healthier equilibrium with nature.
Writer: Nick Chapman
Editorial: Lucía Salinas
July, 2024
