A consortium led by the company GRZ Technologies, the Federal Office of Energy (OFEN) and The Ark Foundation has developed a hydrogen compressor using heat instead of electricity. A promising technology but with limited concrete potential.
To establish itself as a credible alternative to fossil fuels, hydrogen is seeking outlets. While its potential in heavy mobility has been greatly reduced in recent years, given the increasing electrification of road transport, and uncertainty hangs over the role it could play in other sectors, it is nevertheless still seen as a serious solution for seasonal storage.
Contrary to current batteries, whose capacity is limited to a few hours, or at most a few days, hydrogen makes it possible to store energy over periods ranging from several weeks to several months. To meet winter needs in Switzerland, it therefore constitutes a promising avenue, particularly in its so‑called “green” form, produced from renewable energies — as opposed to “grey” hydrogen, still largely dominant and derived from fossil sources. “It could be used to produce electricity and feed the grid with CO₂‑neutral power during the winter, when the supply situation is tight,” experts confirm in a report by the Federal Office of Energy (OFEN) published at the end of 2024.
This solution, however, implies compressing hydrogen. While the process has long been mastered, it is at this level that the project called HyCo – “Hydrogen Metal Hydrides Thermal Compressor with Low Operational Cost” – intends to operate and stand out.
“Our vision is to take part in the energy transition by industrializing innovative technologies enabling the storage of energy in the form of hydrogen, in a safe, affordable and efficient way,” says Noris Gallandat, CEO of GRZ Technologies.
Tested on the industrial site in Viège, the process developed by GRZ Technologies uses the site's waste heat to compress hydrogen from 10 to 200 bar, with a capacity of 30 kg H₂ per hour. It thus makes energy savings possible, the average thermal consumption being limited to 8.8 kWhₜₕ/kg H₂, while the electrical consumption is reduced to 0.2 kWhₑₗ/kg H₂. “This corresponds to a reduction in electrical consumption of about 90% compared with traditional electric compression systems,” the company specifies in a press release.
In the eyes of the consortium, composed of GRZ Technologies, Messer Schweiz, Arxada, EPFL Valais/Wallis, Schnyder Ingenieure and The Ark, the HyCo technology could also contribute to significantly reducing operating costs of the hydrogen sector at sites with waste heat. These notably include industrial sites such as chemical, metallurgical plants or synthetic fuel production facilities.
« The lessons learned from this innovative project open up new possibilities for innovative applications of this sustainable technology », emphasizes Hans Michael Kellner, CEO of Messer Schweiz. “Our vision is to take part in the energy transition by industrializing innovative technologies enabling the storage of energy in the form of hydrogen, in a safe, affordable and efficient way,” adds Noris Gallandat, CEO of GRZ Technologies.
Without questioning the interest of this innovation, it should nevertheless be stressed that it does not solve the main challenges inherent in the process of converting electricity into hydrogen, then hydrogen back into electricity, which must imperatively be taken into account in the final equation.
“This process concerns only one link in the chain, whose overall efficiency typically implies losses on the order of 60% to 70%. In this set of losses, compression represents only about 5% to 10%, relative to its usual electricity needs,” explains Nicolas Charton, managing director at E-CUBE Strategy Consultants.
“This process concerns only one link in the chain, whose overall efficiency typically implies losses on the order of 60% to 70%,” explains Nicolas Charton, managing director at E-CUBE Strategy Consultants.
Once converted into hydrogen and then reconverted into electricity, only a fraction of the initial energy — between 25% and 40% — is actually recovered. “The hydrogen conversion chain involves cascading energy losses that must be carefully compared with the direct use of electricity in applications. Nevertheless, the possibility of storing hydrogen in gaseous or liquid form for later use could partially compensate for this low overall efficiency, by helping to balance supply and demand across a given area or the national energy system,” recalls the umbrella association for the economy of renewable energies and energy efficiency (AEE) in a report.
While the asset of a project such as the HyCo compressor, presented as one of the largest metal hydride compressors in the world, could help keep Switzerland among the pioneering hydrogen countries, will it be enough to solve the demand problem that the sector currently suffers from? And to bring this contested energy vector back to the forefront?
Let us recall that to date, total uncertainty remains around the future of green hydrogen in Switzerland. In its report published in 2024, the Federal Office of Energy (OFEN) estimated that demand could be “between 0.8 and 1.8 TWh in 2030, and reach between 3.6 and 10 TWh in 2050”.
Switzerland is not the only country hesitating about the strategy to adopt regarding hydrogen. Earlier this year, a barometer carried out by EY highlighted Europe’s shortcomings in deploying low-carbon hydrogen. “To reach the production target set by the European RePowerEU plan — namely 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen — 100 GW of electrolysis capacity would need to be installed by 2030, which would require an annual growth of 150%, whereas the average pace has been only 45% since 2020,” reported Nicolas Rauline, journalist at the daily ‘Les Échos’.
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