European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking Issues €89.1M Call for Proposals for 2010

The European Commission Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) Joint Undertaking (JU) has published its 2010 Call for Proposals with a budget of €89.1 million (US$110 million). The JU publishes annual calls for proposals (from 2008-2013), on the basis of which funding is granted for research, technological development and demonstration projects. (Earlier post.)

The overall program of the FCH JU is divided into four major horizontal application areas (AA): Transportation & Refuelling Infrastructure; Hydrogen Production, Storage & Distribution; Stationary Power Generation & CHP; and Early Markets. Cross-cutting activities have also been established as a fifth area in order to make their relevance more visible.

The program structure
reflects the research, technological development and demonstration (RTD) cycle from long-term and breakthrough-oriented basic research to demonstration
and support activities. Pre-normative research is also included at project level. The emphasis given to different action categories in different application areas reflects the industry and research partners’ assessment of the state of technological maturity of the applications.

Specific topics for the different areas in the 2010 Call include:

• Transportation and Refuelling Infrastructure (€31.6M). A topic will be published for large-scale demonstration of second-generation fuel cell vehicles (car and bus fleets with improved durability, robustness, reliability and efficiency) and of a refuelling infrastructure to expand on the number of existing demo sites in Europe.

  Research and development of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells will aim to further reduce the amount of platinum loading, increase catalyst performance and stability, and improve the manufacturability of MEAs. Other R&D
  activities proposed include investigating degradation phenomena specific to transport applications and improving bipolar plates. Finally, proof-of-concept demonstration activity in Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) for transport applications is called for.

• Hydrogen Production and Distribution (€11.0M) will focus on research and development to improve reforming technologies for hydrogen production, with the goal of addressing mid-term fuelling requirements based on conventional and alternative fuels. This shall enable initial introduction of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles in the market.

  Research and development on gas purification technologies is a prioritized topic to tackle short-term fuelling requirements—i.e. a suitable hydrogen quality. One call topic is dedicated to research and development on low temperature alkaline electrolysis technology to further advance the
  large-scale use of renewable and other energy sources, and to achieve substantial
  improvement of energy efficiency.

  Demonstration activities in hydrogen production are prepared with a call for an efficient design for a large-scale hydrogen liquefaction plant. A collaborative project is also launched to prepare for the introduction of higher truck delivery pressure for distribution and retail, including recommendations on safety aspects and
  legislation.

• Stationary Power Generation (€33.0M) has emphasis on material development to improve performance of fuel cell stacks and Balance of Plants components, and on long-term research for novel architectures for cells and stack design. Component improvement of fuel cell systems is also addressed