Learning question: Which hydrogen-related technological elements could be demonstrated at industrial scale by 2030 and have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of hydrogen?

Green hydrogen is essential for decarbonising hard-to-electrify sectors such as heavy transport and industry, shipping, and aviation. It can be used directly to replace traditional fossil fuels in the transportation sector, or act as a building block when producing green methanol, sustainable aviation fuel, hybrid production of bio-methane, or green ammonia.

However, to make green hydrogen and green hydrogen derivatives economically viable and competitive with fossil fuels, the production costs must be significantly reduced while ensuring long-term environmental sustainability. By lowering the cost of green hydrogen, the overall cost of other sustainable fuels will also decrease, making them more attractive in industries reliant on fossil fuels.

Economies of scale and electrolyser improvements play a significant role in decreasing costs for green hydrogen. The first term describes the savings that come from producing in large quantities. The second factor helping drive down costs is electrolyser innovation. The price of electrolysers is decreasing, as capacity, competition, and efficiency increase. This will allow for larger facilities to be built, producing more green hydrogen and bringing the cost closer to that of fossil-based hydrogen.

In this call we look for both radical and incremental demonstratable innovations within technological development that are aimed at improving the efficiency, cost reduction, and scalability of green hydrogen production (e.g., innovations in electrolyser design, unit scalability, balance of plant simplification, materials science, and renewable energy integration). Furthermore, we look for solutions to reduce, reuse, or eliminate the use of critical or rare materials in electrolysers.

The projects must be able to set clear milestones and targets for potential CO2 and cost reduction, job creation, and export potential. The projects must clearly describe how they contribute to reaching cost parity of sustainable fuels in 2030.

All projects must further include relevant aspects on system integration and social sciences and humanities (SSH) – how does your project fit in the bigger system puzzle? And what is the impact on society?

We look for projects, with duration of three to four years. A total budget of 28 million DKK is allocated for this theme, and we expect to invest in one to three projects with an investment rate of maximum 75%. We foresee projects involving active collaboration between three to eight partners with a mix of academia and industry. The solution must be deployable in industrial application in 2030.

Learning question: Through demonstration in industry, which fuel production pathways can deliver significant cost down in 2030?

In 2030, green fuels will still face challenges in being cost-competitive compared to traditional fossil fuels, which hinders their widespread adoption. Without the financial backing to make sustainable fuels competitive with fossil fuels, their role in decarbonising the shipping and aviation sectors may be limited, slowing the overall pace of the green transition.

By 2030, particularly biofuels and early-stage e-fuels, or combinations hereof, that are currently close to commercial maturity, will play a critical role in reducing emissions in the shipping and aviation sector, leveraging existing infrastructure and feedstocks to meet short-term climate goals.

In context of 2030 we expect the majority of the projects under this theme will demonstrate or advance bio/hybrid production pathways with potential to deliver significant CO2 reduction within shipping and aviation. For biofuels, it is important to note that to be considered sustainable, the bio-feedstocks must align with the EU RED III rules for “advanced” feedstocks and must not include energy crops or crops grown for food.

Demonstrating the technical feasibility and economic viability of advanced conversion technologies is critical for future large-scale production of green fuels that uses 2nd or 3rd generation bio-feedstocks.

Pilot and demonstration projects should be designed to validate under real-world conditions, assessing performance metrics such as conversion efficiency, product yield, and process stability.

The projects must be able to set clear milestones and targets for (potential) CO2 and cost reduction, job creation, and export potential. Furthermore, the projects must clearly describe how they contribute to economically viable green fuels in 2030.

Projects should include relevant aspects of social sciences and humanities (SSH), land-use, life-cycle-assessment (LCA), safety, certification, regulation, identification and understanding of end-demands, and synergies to other competing technologies and/or end-products.

We look for projects with duration of three to four years. A total budget of 30 million DKK is allocated for this theme, and we will invest in one to three projects with investment rate of maximum 75%. We foresee projects that involve active collaboration between three to eight partners to encourage a mix of academia and industry. Only projects starting at technology readiness level (TRL) of 5/6 or higher with potential to deliver significant CO2 reduction in 2030 will be considered for funding.

Learning question: Which initial initiatives, that ensure long term fuel availability/deployability at scale, should we activate now to support future market development?

Sustainable fuels will be crucial for shipping and aviation in 2050 because these sectors are among the hardest to decarbonise and achieving global net-zero emissions by 2050 requires high energy density sustainable fuels.

By 2050, e-fuels like e-methanol, e-methane, e-ammonia, and e-kerosene are expected to play a significant role when fuelling shipping and aviation.

Despite their potential, sustainable fuels face significant challenges in terms of cost competitiveness, technological readiness, and scalability. Current production costs for e-fuels remain significantly higher than conventional fuels.

In this theme, the aim is to prepare for deployment of sustainable fuels in the future marked. This could include infrastructure projects related to the ship- or airport terminal, a green corridor, project that bring produced fuels into usage, or projects that demonstrate the adoption of sustainable fuels.

We look for solutions that can demonstrate or advance the deployment of fuels for shipping and aviation in 2050 with potential to deliver significant CO2 reduction for 2050.

We look for projects with duration of three to four years. A total budget of 10.5 million DKK is allocated for this theme, and we will invest in one or two projects with investment rate of maximum 75%. In these projects, we foresee a clear international perspective and active collaboration between academia and industry.