Centro Prove ITAE – Green-H2 Laboratories
TA24 – CNR-Green-H2 LABs
Location
CENTRO PROVE CNR-ITAE, via Beppe Alfano, n.19
I-98125 Messina, Italy
Description
The GREEN-H2 laboratories provide stations and laboratories the possibility to test prototypes and systems for hydrogen technologies. In the field of the generation of hydrogen, the main research topics carried out in the GREEN-H2 laboratories regard:
- A) H2 production by electrolysis at low temperature:
PEM test station for single cells and short stacks are equipped with high-quality analytical tools and enable automated testing in the power range of up to 5 kW, with electrolysis voltages up to 12V and maximum currents of up to 100 A. Among other features, tests on high-pressure electrolyers with pressure management capabilities up to 50 bar can be performed. It is also possible to operate at differential pressures. The main technical characteristics of the PEM test stations are:
- Precise water / electrolyte recirculation and anode temperature control
- Wide water temperature control range (40 °C to 90 °C)
- Optional cooling circuit for maximum power testing in the full temperature range
- Water conductivity measurement
- Hydrogen and oxygen production measurement
- B) H2production through non-oxidative catalytic de-hydrogenation processes of hydrocarbons:
Catalytic tests in the non-oxidative catalytic de-hydrogenation of hydrocarbons are carried out in several dedicated laboratory-scale, semi-automatised plants, able to operate in continuous mode, at high pressure (up to 50 bar), approaching real industrial operative conditions. Reactants are fed in the pipelines of the catalytic plants and heat-controlled. The catalytic plants are equipped with reactor units made in AISI 316 stainless steel, type CSTR or PFR, having a net catalyst loading capacity ranging from 0.1g to 1.5 kg, able to perform the reaction tests in the range of 25-800°C of temperature and 1-100 bar of pressure. The catalytic reactions and the process conditions are monitored by PC. Reactants and products are on-line analysed by chromatography and mass spectroscopy.
- C) H2production through thermochemical conversion of biomasses:
The test station can work with different feedstock up to 1-2 kg/h. Air, oxygen, steam or mixtures of them may be used as gasifying agents. It also offers the user a wide range of operational conditions: temperatures up to 850 °C, secondary air in the freeboard, residence time, etc.
Other available equipment includes:
- Hydrogen or syngas generators (until 50 Nm3/h of H2) based on reforming (SR, ATR, POX, etc.) of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon and biofuels (biogas, ethyl alcohol).
- Biomass gasifiers and syngas purification lines. Cogeneration and trigeneration systems, adsorption heat pumps and hydrogen storage systems with a max capacity of 1.0 kg of H2.
Services offered consist of:
- Support for the development of components and devices for the production of hydrogen from renewable energy and sources, including the validation of testing procedures and measurement methodologies for the performance assessment.
- Study of electrolyser response when connected to renewable energy source (i.e. photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbine profile simulation).
- Tests under controlled climatic conditions.
- Validation of testing protocols, test procedures and measurement methods for the performance assessment.
- Test campaigns, carried out by qualified researchers with multi-decade experience in the field, can be also performed.
Testing Capabilities
Testing capabilities includes experimenting and testing hydrogen production and storage, any device and tools for the evaluation and validation of the performance energy generation electric and thermal energy storage, development of materials, components and measuring devices/sensors tests.
Technical Equipment
In addition to the test stations, ITAE can dispose of the most modern measurement and analysis instruments, as well as any device and tools for the evaluation and validation of the performance and for the synthesis and preparation of special advanced materials. In particular, the laboratories are equipped with climatic-rooms, test benches, electrochemical devices and instruments and meters of both physical and chemical quantities.
Furthermore, the infrastructures of ITAE has instruments for the chemical-physical study and characterisation of materials such as an X-ray Fluorescence spectrometer (XRF Bruker Tiger S8 II, 4KW), an X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscope (XPS-ESCA Physical Electronics 5800), a Quadrupole-mass spectrometer (QMS Thermo-Star GSD 350.), X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD Bruker Davinci D8 II, 4KW), a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM Jeol JEM-F200), a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM Philips XL-30 FEG), a Surface Area and Pore Volume analyser (Micromeritics ASAP 2020), several Thermal Analyzers (TGA-DSC), an Elemental Analyzer (CHSN-O), TOC and gas chromatographs, and an UV-Visible and IR (FTIR) spectrometer.
Additional information
Technology Readiness Level: 4-6
Special considerations: N/A
Technology clusters: Biofuels, Energy Storage, Hydrogen, Materials for Energy
Website: http://www.itae.cnr.it/en/green-hydrogen-labs/
Availability: All year
Provision of tools to prepare data sets in a FAIR way: Yes
