COSMHYC XL Project Consortium

The European Institute for Energy Research (EIFER) was created in September 2001 as a European Economic Interest Grouping between EDF (Electricité de France, French utility) and KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and is located in Karlsruhe, Germany. EIFER is active in several areas of energy transition, from strategic planning for sustainable cities to energy systems. One important research topic in EIFER is hydrogen. The institute develops and tests innovative hydrogen technologies from production through electrolysis to applications. EIFER, as one of the major hydrogen research centres in Europe, aims at accelerating the development of hydrogen mobility from carbon free electricity.

EIFER involvement in the COSMHYC projects series: EIFER coordinates the 3 projects, leads the development of the metal hydride compressor prototypes and supervises the test & demonstration phases.

The Communauté de Communes Touraine Vallée de l’Indre (CCTVI) is an association of 22 French municipalities with 52.000 inhabitants. CCTVI is already engaged in following hydrogen projects to drive its development at local scale:

• HECTOR (Hydrogen Waste Collection Vehicles in North West Europe), a project funded by the Interreg North-West Europe Programme, which is demonstrating Fuel Cell powered garbage trucks for decarbonising road transport.
• VELHYRE, a local project deploying a fleet of 15 hydrogen powered E-Bikes.
• HySOPARC, a regional project building the necessary hydrogen infrastructure in the region for different mobility applications. As a first step, a small refuelling station for light vehicles (e.g., hydrogen powered E-Bikes) was installed. In the second phase, the COSMHYC DEMO refuelling station will serve passenger cars, garbage truck and utility vehicles.

Within COSMHYC DEMO CCTVI provides the site for the refuelling station in the HySOPARC area and will operate the station to refuel a fleet of fuel cells vehicles, including the garbage truck from the HECTOR project.

Established in 2008 in the city of Dole (France), MAHYTEC designs and manufactures hydrogen tanks based on two technologies for stationary applications and gas transportation. In the compressed gas storage solutions, the hydrogen gas is stored in a polymer liner reinforced by glass or carbon fibers composite material to withstand high pressure. These light Type IV tanks can store hydrogen for all kinds of applications (e.g., big volume 60 bar tanks for stationary applications, 500 bar tanks for compression output storage or gas transportation). MAHYTEC also offers solid storage in the form of metal hydride tanks. In this case, the hydrogen is stored in a powder made of metallic alloys absorbing hydrogen. Metal hydrides developed by MAHYTEC work at room temperature and low pressure (10-15 bar).

Since 2021, MAHYTEC also manufactures a small PEM electrolyser able to produce up to 1NM3/h at 50bar. Thanks to its comprehensive know-how on the hydrogen value chain, MAHYTEC can also supply integrated systems to store energy.

MAHYTEC involvement in the COSMHYC project series: MAHYTEC develops and manufactures compressors using metal hydrides, with the aim of achieving an economic and silent way to compress hydrogen. MAHYTEC is working on the hydride materials and on the compressive reactors.

Nel Hydrogen is a global company dedicated to hydrogen, which is delivering optimal solutions to produce, store and distribute hydrogen from renewable energy. Nel serves industries, energy and gas companies with leading hydrogen technology. Since its foundation in 1927, Nel Hydrogen has a proud history of development and continuous improvement of hydrogen plants. Its hydrogen solutions cover the entire value chain, from hydrogen production technologies to manufacturing of hydrogen refuelling stations, providing all fuel cell electric vehicles with the same fast fuelling and long range as conventional vehicles today.

Nel Hydrogen focuses on two product areas: electrolysers for hydrogen production and H2Station® for hydrogen fuelling of vehicles. With more than 850 reliable and cost-efficient electrolysers installed around the globe, Nel Hydrogen is the recognised industry leader of alkaline water electrolysers. Nel Hydrogen’s water electrolysers are the superior choice for industry, power-to-gas and power-to-power applications. The H2Station® is a new generation hydrogen refuelling station for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles, providing fast fuelling with long range according to international standards. H2Station® is based on years of operational experience in the field, offers the world’s most compact footprint, and is renowned for providing high fuelling reliability.

Nel Hydrogen involvement in the COSMHYC projects series: Nel Hydrogen is focusing on the mechanical compressor. Developments and optimization are based on years of collaboration with compressor manufacturers and actual field use in hydrogen refuelling stations throughout Europe.

EIFHYTEC is a French manufacturer of innovative hydrogen compressors. It was founded in 2019 with the aim to drastically increase the efficiency of hydrogen compression. The company offers tailored solutions for different applications needing compressed hydrogen. As its compressors are using thermal rather than mechanical effects, EIFHYTEC’s solution offers – among others – the benefits that it requires less maintenance, it leads to less wear and tear, it doesn’t cause any noise pollution. EIFHYTEC’s technology is based on more than 15 years of public and private research.

EIFHYTEC’s role within COSMHYC DEMO: EIFHYTEC develops, manufactures, and tests the optimized metal hydride compressor. To this end, EIFHYTEC closely collaborates with project partners EIFER and MAHYTEC.

Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH (LBST) is a German consultancy for sustainable energy and mobility. With expertise in bridging technologies, markets, and policy, LBST supports international clients from industry, finance, politics, and non-governmental organisations. International blue-chip companies trust in the reliable judgment of LBST. Its cutting-edge competence is based on over 3 decades of experience and on its interdisciplinary team of leading experts. Hydrogen and fuel cells for mobile and stationary use are a major focus of LBST since the beginning. Activities include detailed studies on hydrogen infrastructures and costs, technologies roadmaps, as well as life-cycle analyses. LBST has established and maintains large industry &policy databases, including energy process and system technologies as well as economic and environmental performances. LBST supports industry, politics and nongovernmental organizations in the identification and development of strategies for the introduction of new products and concepts with system studies, project management and coordination, and strategic consultancy services to develop business cases.

LBST involvement in COSMHYC and COSMHYC XL: LBST is responsible for the techno-economic analysis of the hybrid compression solution, including the selection and definition of relevant compressor applications with its respective technical requirements as well as the benchmark against other existing hydrogen compression solutions. This will ensure that the COSMHYC compression solution will perfectly meet the requirements of the applications. LBST will perform an economic feasibility study and will benchmark the economic and technical performance against state-of-the-art compressors. By doing so, the consortium will be enabled to verify its business case and to prove the unique selling proposition of this hybrid COSMHYC compression solution.

Steinbeis Innovation gGmbH, also known under its brand name Steinbeis Europa Zentrum (SEZ), is a not-for-profit research organisation founded in 1990 as the operational unit of the European Commissioner of Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Economic Affairs. SEZ has over 25 years of experience in its core business – technology transfer.

Steinbeis 2i GmbH (S2i) was founded in 2016, as a 100% subsidiary of SEZ, to complement this mission.

Teams of SEZ and S2i (both Steinbeis Transfer Centres) have senior expertise in building innovation capacities in SME and supporting cross-border research projects.

Steinbeis 2i GmbH is partner in COSMHYC and COSMHYC XL, while Steinbeis Europa Zentrum is partner in COSMHYC DEMO. They are supporting the German coordinator EIFER with administrative and financial project management. As project partners, Steinbeis 2i and Steinbeis Europa Zentrum are also responsible for the communication, dissemination, and exploitation of project results.