Basque Engineering Unites Forces to Research Two Green Hydrogen Production Lines!

Green Hydrogen and Its Challenges

Hydrogen (H₂) is a clean energy source, as it emits no greenhouse gases during combustion. It’s a highly promising clean fuel — but not without its challenges. One of the main hurdles is its transportation, due to its low density and flammability.

According to its origin, we can distinguish:

    • Green hydrogen, produced from renewable energy sources
    • Grey hydrogen, derived from natural gas
    • Pink hydrogen, generated using nuclear energy

Green hydrogen is emerging as one of the key fuels to meet the ambitious goals of the European Green Deal. However, there is still ground to cover before it becomes the most appealing and widespread production route.

The HIMICRACK Project

Within this context, the HIMICRACK project was launched with the aim of developing two production lines for renewable hydrogen:

      • Objective 1: Production of renewable H₂ from H₂O through the interaction of microwaves with solid-state ionic materials. Low-temperature REDOX (reduction-oxidation) reactions enable the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen.

      • Objective 2: Production of renewable H₂ from NH₃ through an ammonia cracking process, which seeks the thermal decomposition of ammonia into its components: N₂ and H₂.

In the initial phase, hydrogen will be produced via water electrolysis. Then, nitrogen will be transformed into NH₃ to facilitate easier and safer transportation.

 

SBS is taking part in this new project led by SENER, in collaboration with AENIUM, CEINNMAT, H2SITE and VICAR. At SBS, we will explore the viability of HECO (High Efficiency Contact) Technology to scale up the material reduction process in water splitting for hydrogen production, aiming to reduce the energy requirements of the process.

 

HIMICRACK is a project funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).