Hydrogen Technology in Estonia

In Estonia, world-class research in hydrogen technologies (in the fields of fuel cells and electrolyzers) has been conducted for decades. Business in the field has been growing in recent years, both in terms of developers and producers of base technology, as well as in the field of specific application pilot projects. Estonian scientists with international experience are employed in companies, and competencies from other countries are also involved.

The wider adoption of hydrogen technologies is an inevitable part of the development of the energy and transport sectors and the pursuit of Europe’s and the world’s climate neutrality goals. Estonian Hydrogen Association operates in Estonia, and a technical committee has been established to lead the standardization of hydrogen production, storage, transport, measurement, and use systems and equipment.

A nationwide and comprehensive development is underway – the Estonian Hydrogen Valley – which accelerates the green transition and energy independence under the motto “From Zero to Green”. 30 projects (most of them in the idea and feasibility study phase) cover the hydrogen value chain across the entire country, from renewable energy production to hydrogen use.

Challenges

However, while there is a lack of a link between the strong basic science of research institutions and the accompanying innovative applied ideas, and the technology development and production business, it is significantly more difficult for ideas to reach real use. The faster and more thorough the competence and infrastructure-based R&D services support both start-ups and operating companies can raise their technology readiness level, the more prospects there are for the growth of new patents, the number of jobs, and the turnover of companies. The challenges faced by companies in the hydrogen sector are multifaceted.

Development activities, from novel materials technology solutions and scalable production methodologies to standards-compliant product design, require specific competencies, high technological risk, and are time and capital intensive. Getting from a laboratory proof-of-concept stage to a repeatable and reliable product requires several cycles between laboratory scale and prototyping stages.

Service Portfolio

The hydrogen technologies developed by Estonian companies have fundamental differences, i.e. research and development work is carried out on both low and high temperature fuel cells and electrolyzers. In all cases, there is a high volume of testing in both single cell and stack stages, as well as in the final product prototype phases, i.e. with devices of different power ranges. At the same time, there are many more stack testing applicants in Europe than free testing capacity. The possibility to test in Estonia would be significantly more attractive for local companies in terms of resource costs.

Our services are aimed at:

• high and low temperature electrolyzer technology developers,
• high and low temperature fuel cell technology developers,
• energy companies and other hydrogen technology integrators.

The service portfolio is being jointly developed with partners:

• testing and engineering services, demos and validation,
• intellectual property strategy and regulatory consulting,
• process simulations,
• hydrogen quality certification.

 

We are always looking for ambitious international R&D cooperation projects.

 

Priit Ilomets
Head of Hydrogen Technologies Unit
+372 5853 3939
priit.ilomets@metrosert.ee