For the first time in over 2 ½ years, a partner meeting could take place in person again. From 13-14 September 2022 the consortia met in Karlsruhe, Germany, where they were welcomed at EIFER.
On the first day, the COSMHYC XL partner meeting took place, followed by a trip to Fraunhofer ICT – the site of the metal hydride compressor, developed within COSMHYC XL.
The afternoon session was used to prepare for the upcoming midterm review of COSMHYC DEMO. In the evening, a dinner in the city allowed for discussion to continue and for partners, especially those who had not met before offline, to get to know each other better.
On the second day, the consortium met with the project officer of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, Pietro Caloprisco, and two external evaluators to review the first 18 months of the project. The goal was to share in minute detail the progress of the work, transparently discuss any challenges, and present mitigation strategies.
During the first 18 months, the tasks of the partners revolved around preparing for the installation of the hybrid compression solution in a hydrogen refuelling station in France – moving from the prototype testing in XL to demonstrating it in a real-life setting.
For this, the needs of the HRS end-users were identified and analysed to optimise the configuration of the compression solution and HRS. This includes finalising contracts between partners, drafting site-layout plans for the beginning of the civil works, selection of the metal hydride compositions, and improvements on the design of the system integration based on learnings acquired from the COSMHYC & COSMHYC XL projects.
The reviewers provided feedback and recommendations about the tasks – achieved and upcoming – and emphasised the relevance of the project, and its high potential impact. The fast-approaching hydrogen economy would require innovative, affordable, reliable, and most of all tested compression solutions. This was precidsely the challenge addressed by the COSMHYC DEMO project.
Overall, the review was very positive, leaving the partners with a feeling of determination to deliver on the expected results and to install the brand new hydrogen refuelling station, featuring the COSMHYC compression solution by mid-2023.
