Improved components and tools to increase the safety of electrolysers

Expected Outcome:Hydrogen production via water electrolysis is a cornerstone technology for achieving Europe’s climate neutrality goals and supporting the decarbonisation of industry, transport, and the energy sector. As the deployment of electrolyser systems scales up, so do concerns around their safety, durability, and long-term operational reliability. In particular, incidents related to hydrogen and oxygen mixing within cells, stacks and tanks – caused by membrane degradation, structural failures, or inadequate monitoring – pose risks not only to the systems themselves but also to their regulatory acceptance and public perception. These challenges are exacerbated during critical operating phases, such as system start-up, shutdown, and dynamic load transitions driven by fluctuating renewable electricity inputs.This topic addresses these challenges by focusing on the development and validation of improved components and integrated tools to enhance the safety of low-temperature water electrolysers. Proposals on this topic should cover conventional low temperature electrolyser as well as emerging architectures. It should be open to diverse approaches, provided they address the core issue of increasing system safety while maintaining or improving electrochemical performance and enabling scalable, regulation-ready designs. To address these challenges holistically, proposals should also cover structural and mechanical aspects, including numerical modelling of degradation and failure mechanisms (e.g. finite element (FE) modelling), and provide design recommendations for electrolyser components to enhance operational integrity and intrinsic safety.Project results are expected to contribute to enhancing the safety, reliability, and regulatory readiness of electrolysers by addressing critical degradation mechanisms and system design flaws that may lead to H₂/O₂ mixing and other hazardous failures.The projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:Contribute