Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
The Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking or Clean Hydrogen Partnership is a unique public-private partnership supporting research and innovation (R&I) activities in hydrogen technologies in Europe. It builds upon the success of its predecessor, the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The hydrogen liquefaction process is generally composed of the following main technological sub-systems: pre-cooling (incl. heat exchangers with cooling fluid & compressors), cooling (incl. compression), coldbox (including heat exchangers and ortho-para conversion), expansion and boil-off gas management.
Detailed Call Description
To overcome the technological barriers of small-scale hydrogen liquefaction and to prepare a future deployment of smaller LH2 volumes at a higher TRL, the innovative hydrogen liquefaction system developed in proposals should address the following elements:
- Assessment of currently offered technologies for small scale liquefaction plants (<5 tpd)
- Description of proposed technology elements, including e.g.:
- O-P conversion
- Precooling to an intermediate temperature in the range of 80-110 K
- Cryogenic cooling further to 20-30 K
- Handling/re-liquefaction of gas return from adjacent storage
- Conceptual design optimisation at system scale (incl. all necessary BoPs)
- Development of an innovative small-scale hydrogen liquefaction system (sub-modules, cycle or even equipment) that should:
- Demonstrate technical and economic improvements at scale (at least >500 kg/day) with a potential for scaling up.
- Be capable of reducing the energy consumption and specific cost of hydrogen liquefaction at indicated scale.
- Demonstrate the capability of the concept for operating at lower and/or fluctuating load (50-100 %) to be in line with hydrogen production via e.g. water electrolysis from renewable sources;
- Demonstrate through to the prototype’s operation, a specific power consumption of 12 kWh/kg for 500 kg/day liquefaction capacity considering feed hydrogen at 20 bar and 20 oC.
The focus should be on the following:
- Reduce the specific energy requirements, e.g. by optimising pre-cooling to an intermediate temperature in the range 80-110 K, and/or by applying innovative thermodynamic optimisation, and/or by improving boil-off recovery strategies etc;
- Evaluate the cost-benefit for handling/re-liquefaction of gas return from adjacent storage;
- Conduct advanced thermal studies on those components or processes generating the highest irreversibility, providing key design features to optimise the small-scale units;
- Create a system’s oriented Digital Twin of the new thermal/thermodynamic concept to support the design phase, to extend the description of its behaviour beyond the experimental set-up limits, and by scalability studies generate data to assess the feasibility up to 5 tpd;
- The validated industrial prototype should prove and support the scalability of the innovative concept to suit flowrates up to 5 tpd.
The proposed technology to be developed should be benchmarked against the technologies commercially available today based either on the Helium Brayton and the Claude cycle at 1 tpd and 5 tpd and should demonstrate reduced liquefaction cost.
Proposals should also address the following economic and regulatory issues:
- The innovative concept should demonstrate a specific liquefaction cost of around 3.5 €/kg for a small-scale unit (1 tpd);
- The project should define a suitable roadmap to prepare the deployment of small volumes of liquid hydrogen solutions;
- Perform techno-economic analysis to identify CAPEX and OPEX drivers, potential paths to improvements, and assess the scalability of the technology. The analysis should focus on especially relevant business cases for the technology such as distributed small-scale liquefaction and re-liquefaction of gas return from adjacent storage.
- Perform conceptual design optimisation to enhance performance, reduce costs, ease of installation and meet stakeholder requirements more effectively;
- Propose accurate business models for commercialisation purposes;
- Contribute to the development of regulations, codes and standards needed for the LH2 safety issues;
Proposals are expected to address sustainability and circularity aspects.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Expected EU contribution per project: €6.00 million.
Thematic Categories
- Economy-Finances
- Energy
- Environment and Climate Change
- Industry
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Information Technology
- Processing
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness
Eligibility for Participation
- Associations
- Central Government
- Educational Institutions
- Large Enterprises
- Legal Entities
- Natual person / Citizen / Individual
- NGOs
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Services Providers
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Additional eligibility condition: Maximum contribution per topic
For some topics, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, an additional eligibility criterion has been introduced to limit the Clean Hydrogen JU requested contribution mostly for actions performed at high TRL level, including demonstration in real operational environment and with important involvement from industrial stakeholders and/or end users such as public authorities. Such actions are expected to leverage co-funding as commitment from stakeholders. It is of added value that such leverage is shown through the private investment in these specific topics. Therefore, proposals requesting contributions above the amounts specified per each topic below will not be evaluated
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-03-03: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 5.00 million
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-04-02: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 8.00 million
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-06-01: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 17.00 million
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-06-02: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 8.00 million
Additional eligibility condition: Membership to Hydrogen Europe / Hydrogen Europe Research
For the topics listed below, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, an additional an additional eligibility criterion has been introduced to ensure that one partner in the consortium is a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research. This concerns topics targeting actions for large-scale demonstrations, flagship projects and strategic research actions, where the industrial and research partners of the Clean Hydrogen JU are considered to play a key role in accelerating the commercialisation of hydrogen technologies by being closely linked to the Clean Hydrogen JU constituency, which could further ensure full alignment with the SRIA of the JU. This approach shall also ensure the continuity of the work performed within projects funded through the H2020 and FP7, by building up on their experience and consolidating the EU value-chain. In the Call 2026 this applies to: development and demonstration of flexible and standardised hydrogen storage systems and demonstration and operation of reversible solid oxide cell systems operation for local grid-connected hydrogen production and utilisation. This will also apply to the Hydrogen Valleys (flagship) topics as they are considered of strategic importance for the European Union ambitions to double the number of Hydrogen Valleys by 2025 as well as to the more recent European Commission’s inspirational target to have at least 50 Hydrogen Valleys under construction or operational by 2030 across the entire EU. For the Hydrogen Valleys topics a large amount of co-investment/co-funding of project participants/beneficiaries including national and regional programmes is expected.
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-03-03
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-04-02
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-06-01
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-06-02
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects.