Heat and Energy Recovery of Electrolyser Systems (HEROES)

The HEROES project aims to demonstrate hydrogen production systems with the world’s highest net-efficiency, aiming to improve Finland's expertise and competitiveness in advanced electrolysis and heat integration systems. It will provide solutions for harnessing and using waste heat from the entire hydrogen production value chain, including the solid oxide cell (SOC), transformers, converters, heat pumps and gas compressors. This approach is also expected to mitigate the levelized cost of hydrogen. HEROES represents a significant advancement for the hydrogen industry. It can serve as a pioneer in realising innovative concepts for enhancing the system integration between solid oxide cell systems and other electronic systems, i.e., to capture and utilise waste heat effectively in electrolysis, extend the lifetime of solid oxide cells, and provide expertise to other companies in terms of cost-effectiveness, business modelling, and knowledge in grid-SOC power system interface. Finland's export potential for electrolyser technology is projected to grow significantly towards 2030, thereby generating new employment opportunities and fostering business ventures. In this endeavour, the University of Vaasa will play a key role by modelling the electro-thermal phenomena of the relevant subsystems and embedding the models into a system-level framework. Taking a physics-based approach to modelling the heat transfer between components will support reusability of the models, which further strengthens the project’s impact on future development of SOC-based power systems.