H2REF-DEMO aims to further develop and scale up by a factor of 5 the innovative compression concept developed in H2REF, in order to address large vehicle refuelling applications requiring hydrogen to be dispensed at rates of hundreds of kg/h, such as bus fleet refuelling every evening at the bus depot, truck refuelling, and train refuelling. Thanks to demonstrating the process during one year for commercial 35 MPa refuelling of trucks, the project will bring to TRL7 the disruptive compression technology previously developed in the H2REF project and already validated for 70 MPa refuelling of light duty vehicles. Along with capacity scale-up, H2REF DEMO will focus on process optimisation, cost reduction and further durability testing, Full optimisation will be achieved by first developing a digital twin of the scaled-up process. Use of accumulators with shells in hoop wrapped steel (Type II), a suitable technology for 35 MPa refuelling, will allow to optimise costs. A thorough accelerated testing approach involving at least 500 hours of continuous operation, will allow to verify durability of the accumulators and the compression stages over the full range of operating conditions. The demonstrated system is expected to provide a peak dispensing capacity of 150 kg/h, amounting to 1200 kg/d with 8 hours of daily operation, with a targeted cost of 1200 €/(kg/d). The process is expected to reduce electricity consumption to 3.5 kWh/kg of dispensed hydrogen, from production on site at 2 MPa to vehicle tank at 42 MPa. The knowledge gained will allow subsequent development to focus on commercial product development for short term commercial deployment. A multi-disciplinary team, composed of 4 industrial companies and 3 RTOs, combining expertise in hydraulic power supply, in bladder accumulator, in process simulation, modelling process digital twins, in H2 refuelling and distribution stations is gathered in the consortium to reach the targeted KPIs of H2REF-DEMO.

The North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley – NAHV project builds on the LoI signed in March 2022 by representatives of the Slovenian Ministry of Infrastructure, Croatian Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development and Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) Autonomous Region in Italy, contributing to the European Green Deal and European Hydrogen Strategy goals. The project’s high-level objective is the creation of a hydrogen-based economic, social and industrial ecosystem based on the capacity of the quadruple helix actors. This will drive economic growth, generating new job opportunities in the framework of both the green and digital transitions and, by creating the conditions for wider EU replicability, it will contribute to the creation of a European Hydrogen Economy, To fulfil these objectives the NAHV project involves a well-rooted partnership of 36 organizations (of which 2 in Hydrogen Europe, 3 in Hydrogen Europe Research), covering the transnational Central European area of 3 territories - Slovenia, Croatia and FVG Region, demonstrating cross-border integration of hydrogen production, distribution and consumption, and exchange of over 20% of NAHV annual hydrogen production of over 5000 tons. The project will activate 17 testbed applications in their related ecosystems, clustered in 3 main pillars - hard to abate, energy and transport sectors. These will act as real-life cases for piloting global hydrogen markets, moving from TRL 6 at the beginning to TRL 8 at the end of the project. Four fuel cell applications in the energy and transport sectors will be demonstrated. Testbeds will then be scaled up at industrial level as a replicable model, contributing to the decarbonisation of the 3 territories by harnessing renewables to improve system resilience, security of supply and energy independence. Replicability will also be ensured for the whole NAHV model, with the uptake of at least 5 additional hydrogen valleys in Europe, particularly in Central and South Eastern Europe.