Renewable electricity and heat can be produced cheaply today and short-term storage solutions for evening out mismatches between production and demand are available at low cost. However, technologies for storing renewables for longer time-spans of months or seasons are scarce and costly and thus not widely used yet.
The REVEAL project develops a game-changing and unique solution to this challenge, using the conversion of aluminium oxide into aluminium metal (Power-to-Al) in an environmentally friendly way to store renewable energy and produce a "renewable fuel" in the form of aluminium.
This ground-breaking technical solution will enable to store large amounts of energy with an unmatched energy storage density of over 15 MWh/m³ at an attractively low cost, without losses and with lower environmental impact than today's solutions. The easily transportable energy vector can be used for heat and electricity, or hydrogen production wherever and whenever needed, in scalable units from few kW to the MW range.
This breakthrough high-density storage solution will enable to cover energy demands with flexibility also in small units and off-grid situations, and – above all – in seasons where the demand is much higher than local renewable production could possibly cover.
Therefore, with the emerging technology of carbon free reduction of aluminium oxide to aluminium in combination with the release of energy from an aluminium storage vector, this project will provide one of the missing pieces of the puzzle for a climate neutral Europe.
SINTEF will contribute as a partner in the REVEAL project and will have the key roles of
- Developing a probe to monitor the oxide concentration during the electrolysis process
- Monitoring and characterizing the off gases from the electrolysis process
- Consultant for the materials needed for the construction of electrolysis cell
- Treatment and characterization of aluminium hydroxide and alumina from the hydration reactions
- Validation of the closed aluminium-alumina material cycle
Project Partners
- IceTec (coordinator)
- OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule
- Kemijski inštitut, National Institute of Chemistry
- SINTEF
- Pré Sustainability B.V.
- Arctus
- FÉNIX.TNT
- Ratiotherm
- EH group
The REVEAL project is co-funded by the European Union‘s Horizon Europe Programme under grant agreement 101069492 and the Swiss State Secretariate for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number 22.00043.
For more information about the project REVEAL, see the website