Hydrogen

Reinforcing and accelerating R&I  

In 2020, IFPEN’s energy resources activities were awarded the “Carnot Institute” label, in recognition of the numerous active collaborative initiatives with economic players and academia, in France and around the world.  IFPEN Ressources Energétiques is now one of the 39 members of the Carnot network, initially for a period of four years.

Created by the French Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation in 2006, the label is awarded to public laboratories very actively involved in partnership research with a view to supporting company innovation and the country’s growth.

Distributed throughout France, the Carnot Institutes work in synergy to pursue a common objective: to prepare the industrial and economic future, accelerating the transfer of research technologies to the socio-economic world.
 

Addressing the energy transition challenge

The IFPEN Ressources Energétiques Carnot Institute (IFPEN RE) is resolutely committed to the energy transition, seeking to: 

• develop renewable energies, focusing on wind and ocean energies,  geothermal energy and hydrogen, as well as their integration in electricity networks via energy storage;  
• minimize the “climate risk” associated with industrial activities, via the reduction in CO₂ emissions and a better understanding and anticipation of  climate/ground interactions;
• support its partners in the oil industry and oil-related sector, helping them to conduct production activities in a more environmentally-friendly manner, exploiting only the oil and gas resources strictly necessary to take us through this transition period and minimizing the risks associated with exploration and production and enhanced oil recovery techniques, both onshore and offshore. 
   

Supporting innovation in SMEs

In addition to the development of new energy technologies, IFPEN RE is committed to: 
-    proactively increasing the number of partnerships with intermediate-sized companies, SMEs and start-ups; 
-    enabling the Carnot Institute network to benefit from its international development expertise and also drawing on feedback in return.
 

A dense partnership network

The IFPEN Ressources Energétiques Carnot Institute enjoys close ties with industry, from micro-companies, SMEs and intermediate-sized companies through to major French and international industrial groups.

Moreover, it is actively involved in numerous international, European and national collaborative structures, placing it at the heart of a dense research partnership network.

Internationally, the IFPEN RE Carnot Institute has close ties with numerous Research Technology Organizations (RTOs), particularly via framework agreements and strategic partnerships.  Carnot research enjoys a high profile and more than half of its A-list publications are the fruit of cooperative international activities.  In addition it is a stakeholder in numerous world-leading scientific organizations and represents France on the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency’s Technological Cooperation Program, IEA Wind. 

In Europe, the IFPEN RE Carnot Institute is positioned as a key player in the European Research Area (ERA) and works in synergy with platforms such as ETIP-DG in order to define industry’s needs and development opportunities in the geothermal energy sector.  In the field of CCUS, it also actively contributes to European networks such as ECCSEL and the ZEP platform to accelerate the deployment of these technologies.  In the field of geosciences, it contributes to the development of ground management solutions with the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA).

Nationally, the IFPEN RE Carnot Institute is an active contributor to the ANCRE research alliance, of which IFPEN is a founding member, and that of AllEnvi, dedicated to energy and the environment respectively.  It also participates in other themed structures, such as the  AVENIA competitiveness cluster dedicated to geosciences, the Club CO₂ in the field of CCS, which it chairs, the EVOLEN association promoting French technological excellence, the CITEPH Open Innovation program supporting the development of SMEs and intermediate-sized companies in the energy field, and the Convergence Data IA Institute dedicated to digital technology.  
The IFPEN RE Carnot Institute also works closely with the university community and other public research organizations.  Finally, it is actively involved in demonstration projects within the framework of the French Investments for the Future Programs (PIA) supported by Ademe.
 

Expertise and skills  

•    Descriptive and quantitative geosciences 
•    Fluid, solid and structural mechanics 
•    Molecular and thermodynamic modeling 
•    Physical chemistry of complex materials and fluids 
•    Physics and Analysis 
•    Biotechnologies 
•    Chemical engineering and technologies  
•    Process design and modeling  
•    System modeling and simulation 
•    Digital science and technology 

 

The energy transition and tackling climate change depend on the development of new renewable resources. IFPEN proposes processes for the production of fuels, bases for the chemicals sector and gas from biomass. IFPEN also uses its expertise acquired in the field of oil and gas to offer solutions for the industrial deployment of offshore wind energy, ocean energies and geothermal energy. 
 

• Biofuels
• Biogas
• Bio-based chemistry
• Offshore wind and ocean energies
• Geothermal energy
• Hydrogen
• Energy storage

Hydrogen 
Our strengths

Focused on new energy technologies and sustainable mobility, IFPEN’s R&I activities are aimed at developing competitive and sustainable technologies.

IFPEN can support the development of the industrial hydrogen sector by contributing its expertise, with multidisciplinary teams and an international dimension (European projects, JIPs, partnerships).

IFPEN’s cross-cutting positioning throughout the “Hydrogen” value chain

IFPEN's expertise covers the production, storage, transport and different energy uses of decarbonized hydrogen. Some of its expertise is directly mobilized for the solutions it develops in this specific field, while other cross-functional areas of expertise can be applied to hydrogen for the energy transition:

Decarbonization of industry 

IFPEN’s CO₂ capture technologies contribute to the decarbonization of biorefineries, the refining sector and industrial units, which consume a lot of energy and emit high levels of CO2 (steel and cement production).
>> See IFPEN’s CO2 capture solutions to decarbonize hydrogen.

The eco-efficient biogas purification processes developed by IFPEN can also support the production of decarbonized hydrogen. Biogas, a mixture made up of methane and CO2 produced by a biological conversion process known as methanization, offers the potential to produce hydrogen via reforming.

Decarbonization of transport

Hydrogen can be combined with a fuel cell or used directly as a fuel in an IC engine, first of all in heavy trucks and off-road vehicles.
>> See IFPEN’s hydrogen solutions applied to mobility

Hydrogen transport and storage 

With its experimental capacity in the field of corrosion and its tried and tested CO₂ capture technologies, IFPEN is capable of overcoming the various problems associated with hydrogen storage and transport.
>> Read about IFPEN’s expertise, tools and partnerships concerning this theme

Hydrogen 
Our networks

IFPEN plays an active role in several French and European networks, including Clean Hydrogen Alliance, Hydrogen Europe, France Hydrogène (AFHYPAC) and Evolen, and participates in numerous partnership projects and initiatives.

IFPEN also contributes to efforts aimed at overcoming scientific challenges relating to the deployment of decarbonized hydrogen within the framework of different collaborative projects with ANDRA (French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management), the French Corrosion Institute and INRIA for the design of methods and tools for the development of the hydrogen sector. In partnership with the French Corrosion Institute, IFPEN launched a Membership Research Consortium (MRC), the purpose of which is to assemble industrial partners in order to gain a better understanding of the behavior of materials in the presence of hydrogen.

In the field of mobility and on a regional level, IFPEN plays an active role in actions led by the Axelera competitiveness clusters, via networking operations, and the CARA cluster, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, via the setting up of partnership initiatives for the use of hydrogen in transport. It is also a member of the think tank dedicated to hydrogen engines. Finally, IFPEN works in partnership with the Bourgogne Franche Comté region.

MOSHY PROJECT

The aim of the MoSHy project is to develop an electrocatalyst for green hydrogen production combining experimentation and numerical molecular modeling methods. It was selected by the Auvergne - Rhône - Alpes region within the context of the 2018 Pack Ambition Recherche call for projects, and brings together, alongside IFPEN, the CNRS and ENS Lyon, project leader.

“H₂ production via the electrolysis of water is still hampered by a number of technical and economic challenges that must be overcome in order to make it efficient on an industrial scale. For the MoSHy project, we are working on a methodology to select and define economical and efficient electrocatalysts, using a combination of experimentation and molecular modeling.

Our research teams are contributing their expertise in two areas:

• the development of sulfur-based catalysts (MoS2), widely used in the field of hydrotreatment,

• electrochemistry, thermodynamics and molecular modeling.

Our partners in the project bring their expertise in:

• molecular modeling for electrochemistry (LC-ENSL),

• the characterization of materials and stability tests (the Grenoble LEPMI, CNRS).

The success of the consortium will demonstrate the capacity of the local fabric to produce innovative solutions to industrial problems.”

Audrey Bonduelle, project manager, IFPEN

HYDROGEN4EU

IFPEN took part in the Hydrogen4EU project aimed at evaluating the contribution of hydrogen in the European decarbonized energy system.

A scientific study based on modeling the potential of hydrogen in the decarbonization of the European energy system was conducted by IFPEN, SINTEF and Deloitte. It examined two policy scenarios tracing the route to be followed to ensure hydrogen contributes to the EU’s net zero emissions objective by 2050, on the basis of existing European objectives and using transparent modeling frameworks. These results are designed to inform industrial players and policy makers with a view to fully exploiting the potential of low-carbon and renewable energies.

>>Read the Hydrogen4EU study

LONGRUN

IFPEN is a stakeholder in the LongRun project within the framework of the European Horizon 2020 program, evaluating the hydrogen engine technological solution for long-distance heavy duty trucks.

>> To find put more about LongRun and IFPEN's partnerships in the field of sustainable mobility.