Four hydrogen projects have been awarded funding from the EU’s innovation fund, which aims to support projects that develop new low-carbon technologies in energy intensive industries and the energy sector.

A hydrogen-from-waste project and photo-electrocatalytic hydrogen production project in Spain, a 5MW green hydrogen production plant in Poland, and a green hydrogen mobility project in Italy all received funding.

“The increase of the Innovation Fund proposed in the Fit for 55 Package will enable the EU to support even more projects in the future, speed them up, and bring them to the market as quickly as possible,” says European Commission executive vice president Franz Timmermans.

€122mn – Financing of round

The hydrogen-from-waste project will use new pyrolysis and cracking processes to produce 1,600 t/yr of green hydrogen from 12,000t of municipal waste. The hydrogen will be sold to the transport and industrial sectors.

The photo-electrocatalytic hydrogen production plant uses a first-of-its-kind technology that converts solar energy into hydrogen and oxygen with no external energy input. It will produce 100t/ yr of hydrogen to supply the transport sector.

The Polish project will produce 710t/yr of green hydrogen. The main innovative element of the project is the construction of a self-designed electrolyser stack allowing for 5pc energy efficiency savings.

The Italian project will also produce green hydrogen from a waste-to-energy plant, with annual production forecast to be around 830t/yr, which would be used to meet local mobility demand, including rail.

The EU invested a total of €122mn ($144mn) in the funding round. The EU innovation fund is financed with revenues raised by the EU Emissions Trading System.

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Author: Tom Young