SWEETHY represented at The European Symposium on Durability Issues in Low-Temperature Water Electrolysis (a Marcus Wallenberg Symposium)

The European Symposium on Durability Issues in Low-Temperature Water Electrolysis, a Marcus Wallenberg Symposium, was a highlight of the year for the SWEETHY project.

From 13 to 15 October in Stockholm, Sweden, leading researchers and industry experts from Europe and beyond met to discuss one of the main barriers to the mass-market uptake of electrolysers: degradation.

Many of the presentations and posters focused on seawater electrolysis. This technology is especially challenging because salts and biological contaminants in seawater are the main cause of rapid deterioration in electrolyser systems.

The symposium also gave us the chance to meet in person the coordinators of SWEETHY’s three sister projects, ASTERISKS, HySeas and Sea4Volt. All three were funded under the same Horizon Europe 2024 call and also work on seawater electrolysis.

We were also pleased that Jonathan Maus, SWEETHY’s Project Officer, opened the symposium. He looked back on two decades of funding and work by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership and showed how it has shaped EU electrolysis research and applications and helped Europe become a market leader in electrolysis.

The SWEETHY project was represented by 2 presentations of partners SINTEF and CENmat:

• Erlind Mysliu (SINTEF) presented synthesis and performance of nanoporous Ni-Fe-S transport layer when applied as oxygen-evolution reaction electrode in seawater electrolysers.
• Julien Fage (CENmat) showcased several strategies in development of PFAS-free membranes and ionomer binders for SWEETHY electrolyser.

Additionally, the SWEETHY project was also represented by 4 posters of partners French Corrosion Institute (IC), RISE, CNR-ITAE and SINTEF:

• Sourav Bhowmick (IC), focused on corrosion behaviour of bare and coated metallic components in direct seawater electrolysis.
• Sepanta Dokhani (RISE) presented the performance studies and chloride crossover evaluation in direct seawater electrolysis.
• Matteo Panarello (CNR-ITAE) showed strategies to increase stability in seawater-fed electrolysers.
• Kristine Bly (SINTEF) focused on methodologies for sustainability assessment of the SWEETHY concept.