H2SYS: a breath of hydrogen on the energy landscape

1999, the end of a century. Political will is turning towards the new millennium, and energy is already the major industrial issue it is today. At the end of the 1990s, oil prices began to rise again after more than a decade's lull. The proportion of investment in nuclear power in France declined. The search was on for other modes of energy production, alternatives for the future worthy of the 2000s. This economic and political context is prompting Belfort and local authorities in the surrounding region to invest in hydrogen. The FCLAB research federation was created, bringing together laboratories with expertise in the field. Almost two decades later, the Franche-Comté region has become a Mecca for the discipline. FCLAB is the leading national community for applied research into hydrogen energy and the integration of fuel cell systems. It also incorporates a human sciences research focus on how our societies are adopting new hydrogen technologies. The federation brings together 6 laboratories, including FEMTO-ST, and involves 10 supervisory bodies, including the CNRS.

The H2sys spin-off has emerged from this scientific ferment. Described as " a human adventure " by Daniel Hissel - one of its founders - the young company's history is intertwined with that of the Franche-Comté region. Firstly, because it was created by scientists from FCLAB. Daniel Hissel himself is a professor at the University of Franche-Comté and heads a research team at Femto-ST, two of the federation's partners. Secondly, the idea at the heart of the H2sys project grew out of the regional excitement surrounding the subject of hydrogen. " As early as 2004-2005, we had our first discussions within the team on the industrial potential of hydrogen fuel cell systems," recalls Daniel Hissel. The FCLAB teams were already working on integrating these cells into energy production systems. However, the technology was not yet mature enough. The work was at the fundamental level, and not yet aimed at large-scale applications.

It would be almost ten years before the use of hydrogen fuel cells began to develop, and a hydrogen fuel cell market began to take shape in earnest. In 2013, Daniel Hissel and his colleagues are watching this blossoming closely. " All the time we'd spent integrating fuel cell technology had given us the necessary hindsight and enabled us to develop a vision of future challenges, both technical and economic ", he assures us. For the group of scientists, the time was right to launch their company. Their project was born that same year. It quickly received the support of the Franche-Comté region, then of the SATT(Société d'accélération du transfert des technologies ) Grand Est, and of the Carnot institute Télécom & Société numérique. In 2017, the project officially became H2sys.

Hydrogen versus diesel?

Today, the spin-off offers a hydrogen fuel cell integration service tailored to the needs of its customers. Its main focus is on generator sets from 1 to 20 kW. " Our aim is to supply electricity to isolated sites to meet needs on a human scale," explains Daniel Hissel. Applications range from the production of electrical energy for concerts or festivals, to support for rescue teams in the event of road accidents or fires. The devices developed by H2sys incorporate the know-how of FCLAB and Femto-ST, whose research involves working on system diagnosis and prognosis to understand and anticipate failures, life-cycle analysis, predictive maintenance and artificial intelligence for device control.

By focusing on these applications, H2sys systems are in direct competition with conventional generator sets powered by diesel engines. However, while the power ranges are similar, the comparison stops there for Daniel Hissel, as hydrogen fuel cell technology offers considerable intrinsic advantages. " The fuel cell is powered by oxygen and hydrogen, and emits only electrical energy and hot water," he explains. The absence of emissions of pollutants and exhaust gases means that these generators can be used outdoors, of course, but also indoors. " This is a considerable advantage for rapid indoor installations, such as firefighters may need after a fire," points out the company's co-founder.

Another argument: the hardship of working near a diesel generator. Anyone who has ever seen one in operation knows the noise it generates and the pollutant emissions it emits. Hydrogen-powered generators, on the other hand, are silent and emit only water. They are also easier and less frequent to maintain: " the gases react in the system through an electrolytic membrane, so the technology is much more robust than an engine with moving parts," emphasizes Daniel Hissel. It's all these advantages that make hydrogen fuel cells so attractive.

In addition to generator sets, H2sys is also working on autonomy extenders. " This is a niche market for us, as we don't yet have the capacity to integrate them into a large number of vehicles," confides the researcher. However, the company's positioning illustrates the existing demand for hydrogen fuel cell integration solutions. For Daniel Hissel, the outlook is even more ambitious. While the electrical efficiencies of these cells are already more attractive than those of diesel engines (55% versus 35%), the hot water they produce can also be recovered for a variety of uses. These include supplying a sanitary network at isolated sites, or self-consumption in homes using micro-cogeneration (electricity and heating).

For H2sys, finding new uses through intelligent integration is not the only challenge. As a spin-off from research laboratories, it must continue to drive innovation in this field. " With FCLAB, we were the first to work on diagnostics for hydrogen fuel cell systems in the 2000s ," says Daniel Hissel. " Today, we're continuing to prepare for the next step. The aim is to better assess system performance, so as to improve their warranty. By helping to make the technology ever safer, H2sys is making a major contribution to the development of fuel cells. And the maturing process that has been underway since the 2000s is bearing fruit: hydrogen is now being looked at very closely by manufacturers for the massive storage of renewable energies. Will this be the technology of the new millennium envisioned by the pioneers of the late 1990s? Without going that far, it will certainly have a role to play in tomorrow's energy landscape.