Energy Storage in Chemical Fuels and Electricity Regeneration

Green hydrogen production is a key pillar of the Research, Development and Innovation Authority’s renewable energy strategy and is an area where Saudi Arabia is investing heavily. To enable the widespread deployment of low-carbon energy systems, large-scale, long-duration or even seasonal energy storage on electrical grids, it is necessary to implement transportation and distribution capabilities. Hydrogen and hydrogen carrier technologies have the greatest potential to fulfill this role.

This research area focuses on reducing the cost of green hydrogen production based on developing lower-cost catalysts and more economical proton-exchange membranes and ceramic proton-conducting membranes for operation at higher temperatures to accelerate the kinetics of water splitting.

From a techno-economic perspective, formic acid produced by electrolysis of CO2 is considered the most affordable green hydrogen carrier. Hence, the development of “power to formic acid” and “formic acid to power” projects will form part of this research area.