HyScaling: Establishing a Dutch electrolyzer industry for the next level of green hydrogen production

05-11-2021 | New Project | P2Hydrogen

The new multi-partner, multi-year HyScaling project lines up the Dutch high-tech industry, developing a viable Dutch supply chain for large-scale electrolyzer production with a flourishing market perspective at home and beyond. Funded through the 2020 RVO MOOI scheme, the project aligns well with VoltaChem's ambitions, strengthening and boosting the Power-2-Hydrogen program line.

The Netherlands currently lacks a value chain for realizing the large-scale ‘hydrogen factories’ that are necessary for the transition towards a sustainable, climate neutral economy. What’s more, the cost of hydrogen produced with current state-of-the-art electrolyzer technology is too high to be competitive. Therefore, the HyScaling project sets out to develop a viable Dutch supply chain capable of establishing five gigawatts of electrolysis capacity by 2030 and to produce hydrogen that is 25% to 30% cheaper than current price levels. 

The HyScaling project has been developed in a successful shared effort between VoltaChem and ISPT, the Institute for Sustainable Process Technology. The consortium partners work on increasing electrolyzer efficiency, improving the lifetime of components, and lowering total system costs. This entails the development of novel hardware, low-cost manufacturing processes, optimized integrated system designs and advanced operating and control strategies. The ambition is to bring HyScaling innovations to full implementation and roll-out by 2030.

Opportunities for Dutch SMEs

Arend de Groot, technical lead of the VoltaChem Power-2-Hydrogen program line, is quite happy with the scale and ambitions of the HyScaling project that was drafted with substantial input from VoltaChem team members. In particular the attention to the full supply chain, supporting innovation at all levels, is an appealing aspect: "This will offer many opportunities for Dutch SMEs to establish their presence in the hydrogen supply chain, which has always been a main focus in the VoltaChem efforts." He points out that hydrogen offers a great opportunity for Dutch manufacturing industry even beyond the national level. Indeed, due to the European ambition to have 40 gigawatts of installed capacity by 2030, the European electrolyzer market is expected to reach an annual turnover of one billion euros by that year.

De Groot expects the project to strengthen and boost current VoltaChem activities and will also initiate new developments, for instance in the fields of membranes, catalysts, and other areas. The research facilities for this purpose include the Fieldlab Industrial Electrification, the Faraday Lab in Petten and the Hydrohub MW Test Centre in Groningen. The efforts will not only involve breakthrough technology as a foundation for future high-performance systems, but also current technology of which market introduction will be accelerated. To this end, the HyScaling project not only focuses on technical aspects, but also in a broader sense on removing barriers to the large-scale introduction of hydrogen. 

The HyScaling consortium is coordinated jointly by ISPT and VoltaChem and includes the hydrogen technology region from the triangle Hengelo - Arnhem - Nijmegen (represented by Teijin, start-up MXPolymers, VDL, Veco and MTSA); High-tech region Eindhoven (Noord Brabant), represented by TU/e, Brainport Development (BPD), BOM, SALD, Hauzer, Ionbond); Randstad Zuid-Holland (represented by TU Delft, TNO, start-up Zero Emission Fuels (ZEF), Delft IMP, Hydron Energy, Frames, Magneto, VSL and FME); Randstad Noord-Holland (with TNO, DotX Control, Danieli Corus, Nouryon, Greenberg Traurig); Noord-Nederland (Hanze Hogeschool-EnTranCe and Vonk); Germany (Fraunhofer IPT); Belgium (Borit).

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