PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL DEMONSTRATOR DEVICE FOR SOLAR ... · for Solar Hydrogen ... Establishment of an Industrial Review Panel ... Krol gave an oral presentation and presented the PECDEMO

PECDEMO is a Collaborative Project co-funded by FCH JU under the call SP1-JTI-FCH.2013.2.5.

GA n°: 621252. Start date: April 1st, 2014. Duration: 36 months.

Deliverable title: Final Assessment Report

Deliverable nature: Report

Dissemination level: Public

Lead beneficiary: HZB

Contracted date of delivery: Mar-17

Actual date of delivery: Mar-17

Author(s): Daniela Kaden, Roel van de Krol

Photoelectrochemical

Demonstrator Device

for Solar Hydrogen

Generation

Project Deliverable Report −

D7.2

PECDEMO Mid-term Assessment Report

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 1

2. Core of the Report .............................................................................................................. 2

2.1. Background and Objectives for the reporting period ....................................................... 2

2.2. Work progress and achievements during the reporting period ........................................ 2

2.2.1. General Management (Task 7.1) .............................................................................. 2

2.2.2. General Assembly (Task 7.2) .................................................................................... 5

2.2.2.1. Project amendment and budget adjustments........................................................ 5

2.2.3. Executive Board (Task 7.3) ....................................................................................... 6

2.2.4. Establishment of an Industrial Review Panel (Task 7.4) .............................................. 7

3. Appendices ......................................................................................................................... 9

PECDEMO Final Assessment Report

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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The aim of this report is to summarise the second 18 months of activity of

PECDEMO’s Management work package WP7. Efforts of WP7 have thus far involved

common management and assistance to the project partners with regard to daily

administrative processes and activities, i.e., monitoring the progress of the project,

organisation, preparation and follow-up of project meetings, coordination of regular

scientific and financial reports as well as establishing the formal link between the

Consortium and the FCH JU Programme Office.

Moreover, the Coordinator supported by the Management Support Team has

helped ensuring the project communication both internally and externally .


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2. CORE OF THE REPORT

2.1. Background and Objectives for the reporting period

The objective for WP7 was to establish a general management infrastructure for

the proposed work and to provide coordination activities during the course of the

project. It monitors and controls the progress of the project and establishes the formal

link between the Consortium and the FCH JU Programme Office by handling all

general financing and reporting matters. In the framework of WP7, the Management

Support Team organises and facilitates the meetings of the Consortium bodies.

Additionally, this WP coordinates internal communication activities between all

participating project partners.

2.2. Work progress and achievements during the reporting period

2.2.1. General Management (Task 7.1)

The general organisation of the project has been put in place in the early

phases of the project, with a Coordinator, a Management Support Team, Leaders for

each WP and a strong collaborative spirit (for details see D7.1). In order to establish

and provide effective project management, several management activities and

services have been undertaken. These include the following:

Project Meetings and Reporting:

During the second 18 months, three physical meetings and five technical

conference calls have been initiated and held at regular intervals in order to oversee

and assess the progress of each WP, to discuss critical aspects and to address any

problems or deviations from the proposal. Following is a list of project meetings held

during the course of the project:

Conference call, 15/10/2015, via Adobe Connect


5th PECDEMO GA and EB meeting, 07/03/2016, at Technion, Haifa, Israel



6th PECDEMO GA and EB meeting, 07/10/2016, at UPorto in Porto, Portugal



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7th PECDEMO GA and EB meeting, 07/02/2017, at DLR in Cologne, Germany


The Members of the GA and EB have been invited to all the meetings. The Coordinator

and its Management Support Team were responsible for preparing the agenda,

chairing the meetings, providing the summarized minutes and monitoring the

implementation of decisions taken at these meetings. All documents were shared with

the PECDEMO Consortium and a final copy was stored in the restricted file-sharing

area at my.epfl.ch. All partners have hosted at least one PECDEMO meeting, with only

one exception. In the 6th PECDEMO meeting it was unanimously decided to hold the

final PECDEMO meeting at the demonstrator site DLR in Cologne, instead of the Evonik

partner site. The demonstrator was presented and introduced by DLR. In addition, DLR

also intends to make a video of the working demonstrator and disseminate it publicly

via the PECDEMO website.

In addition to the regular conference calls and project meetings, we organized two

additional conference calls on 30/11/2015 and 03/12/2015 to prepare for the Mid-term

review in Brussels on 10/12/2015. At the mid-term review in Brussels the coordinator,

Prof. Roel van de Krol as well as all work package leaders presented the current status

of the project and the individual work packages. The project officer and reviewer

gave us constructive and useful suggestions for continuing the second period and as

far as possible these suggestions were implemented in this second period.

The Coordinator and the Management Support Team have maintained regular

contacts with all the project partners, closely following their financial status and

providing all the necessary information and administrative support, including the

coordination of periodic reporting. The second Annual Project Status Report was

delivered to the Coordinator in September 2016. Those reports were originally planned

for March 2016, but since there were only small changes to the results presented in the

mid-term data report, we decided to postpone it to September, because more data

could be included this way. In addition, these reports serve as a good base for the

final data report. These annual reports are detailed internal project reviews and

include all the work performed within the respected WP up to date. The WP Leaders

reported not only on achievements but also on problems, critical points and risks, as

well as corrective actions. All Annual Project Status Reports were submitted to the

Coordinator and then distributed to the Consortium and are accessible to all partners

on the restricted file-sharing area at http://my.epfl.ch. Since at project end a second


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periodic report will be submitted, there will be no additional Annual Project Status

Report for the final phase.

Communication between the Management Support Team and FCH JU has

been regular throughout the course of project. In the second period, 20 reports on

deliverables, have been provided. The deliverables D4.2 (Delivery date: Nov 2015,

Deliverable Nature: Report), D4.3 (Delivery date: Jan 2016, Deliverable Nature:

Report), D1.4, D3.2 and D5.1 incl. MS5 (Delivery date: Mar 2016, Deliverable Nature:

Report), D3.3 (Delivery date: May 2016, Deliverable Nature: Report), D8.2 (Delivery

date: Jul 2016, Deliverable Nature: Other), D3.4 (Delivery date: Sep 2016, Deliverable

Nature: Prototype), D6.1 incl. MS7 (Delivery date: Nov 2016, Deliverable Nature:

Prototype), D1.5 incl. MS8, D5.3 and D7.2 (Delivery date: Mar 2017, Deliverable Nature:

Demonstrator (D1.5) and Report) were delivered in time. The Deliverables D7.1

(Delivery date: Nov 2015, Deliverable Nature: Report), D2.2 incl. MS4 (Delivery date:

Mar 2016, Deliverable Nature: Report), D4.4 incl. MS6 (Delivery date: Jul 2016,

Deliverable Nature: Prototype), D5.2 (Delivery date: Sep 2016, Deliverable Nature:

Report), D2.3 (Delivery date: Dec 2016, Deliverable Nature: Report), D6.2 (Delivery

date: Jan 2017, Deliverable Nature: Report) and D6.3 (Delivery date: Feb 2017,

Deliverable Nature: Report) were delivered with short delays. However, delays were

always announced and justified to and accepted by the responsible FCH JU project

officer Nikolaos Lymperopoulos. Due to some technical problems and weather

conditions, WP6 was slightly delayed beginning with D6.2. Therefore, also the final

Deliverable D6.4 (Delivery date: Mar 2017, Deliverable Nature: Report) will be delayed

to be able to present the latest data.

In summary, apart from some minor delays, all deliverables and milestones

foreseen in the Grant Agreement for the second period have thus far been attained

by the Consortium.

In addition, the PECDEMO project was represented by the Management

Support Team at the FCH JU Programme Review Days 2015 and 2016 which took place

in Brussels. Key objectives and so far achievements were presented during manned

poster sessions. The poster templates were provided by the FCH JU. In 2015, Fatwa

Abdi, the Leader of work package 1 presented the PECDEMO poster in a manned

poster session in Brussels on 18/11/2015 (Fig. 1 in the Appendix). In 2016, Roel van de

Krol gave an oral presentation and presented the PECDEMO poster in a manned

poster session on 22/11/2016 (Fig. 2 in the Appendix).


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2.2.2. General Assembly (Task 7.2)

The General Assembly (GA) is the top decisional body, primarily responsible to carry

out the strategic plans and policies as established in the Grant Agreement and

Consortium Agreement. It includes at least one representative from each Consortium

partner. These representatives should be able to decide on behalf of their

organisations. The GA meets twice a year. In the second period of the project no more

changes in the GA occurred.

Members of the GA are to date:

Roel van de Krol [HZB, E-IF] as Coordinator and chairperson

Daniela Kaden [HZB, E-IF] as project manager share one vote

Matthew Mayer [EPFL, LPI]

Avner Rothschild [IIT]

Michael Wullenkord [DLR]

Adélio Mendes [University of Porto]

Artjom Maljusch [Evonik Industries AG]

Frédéric Oswald [Solaronix SA]

If both HZB representatives are present at a GA meeting they shall share one vote on

decisions, according to the Consortium Agreement.

2.2.2.1. Project amendment and budget adjustments

After the end of the first project period, Evonik requested a shift of person month from

work package 1. Therefore we submitted a project amendment.

The main scope of WP1 was focused on the development of metal oxide

photoelectrodes and optically transparent counter electrodes at small scale, as we ll

as on the evaluation of their performance. As Evonik is not an expert in metal oxide

deposition techniques, their contribution in WP1 was meant to support the

cooperation partners with the evaluation of the performance of prepared electrodes.

Within the project, the consortium partners had successfully developed

photoelectrodes according to project targets in WP 1 and were able to evaluate

performance directly by themselves due to availability of highly qualified personnel

and appropriate equipment. Thus, additional contribution from Evonik was not really

needed and would not have enabled faster reaching of milestones in WP1.


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During the Midterm Review in Brussels on 10/12/2015, the reviewers recommended to

strengthen the scale-up activities in the second half of the project. Therefore, in

agreement with all the consortium partners, we proposed to reallocate a small part of

the 13.59 person-months still available for Evonik in WP1 (Cell Development) to HZB,

and the rest to EPFL and HZB for the activities in WP3 (Large Area Technology

Development) and WP4 (Device design and testing). This leveraged remaining

resources on topics which are essential to meet upcoming deliverables and therefore

increased the probability to reach the main goal of the PECDEMO project (8% efficient

PEC device with an active area > 50 cm2 and stability > 1000 hours).

In detail, the PECDEMO management team proposed to shift the 13,59 remaining

person months of Evonik WP1 to HZB and EPFL. This shift enabled eight additional

person months for WP1 and WP3 for HZB and four additional person months for WP3

and WP4 for EPFL. The GA and their legal entities formally agreed to this amendment.

Therefore, it was submitted in July 2016 and finally accepted in September 2016. The

changed Annex I and DoW is dated 07/07/2016 and was sent to all partners and was

uploaded on myEPFL.

In addition, we had two formal requests of budget adjustments.

First, DLR requested to shift consumables and travel costs to personnel for WP4 and

WP6. Second, Technion (IIT) requested to shift consumables to personnel, in order to

cover additional salary. We discussed both requests with our FCH JU project officer.

Both mentioned changes were well within the tolerance of shifting funds and effort

between WPs and cost categories. That means, that it was not necessary to submit an

additional amendment. As coordinator we agreed to both budget adjustments and

confirmed this by sending a formal letter to the partners.

2.2.3. Executive Board (Task 7.3)

The Coordinator and all of the WP Leaders make up the Executive Board (EB). The

main responsibility of the EB is the high quality preparation and execution of the

project. The EB meets on a need-to-meet basis but at least quarterly either at physical

meetings or via conference call (For a detailed list of meetings, please go to point

2.2.1.). In the second period of the project no more changes in the EB occurred.

Members of the EB are to date:


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Roel van de Krol [HZB, E-IF]

WP1: Fatwa Abdi [HZB, E-IF]

WP2: Avner Rothschild [Technion/IIT]

WP3: Bernd Stannowski [HZB, PVcomB]

WP4: Adelio Mendes [University of Porto]

WP5: Artjom Maljusch [Evonik Industries AG]

WP6: Michael Wullenkord [DLR]

WP7: Daniela Kaden [HZB, E-IF]

WP8: Matthew Mayer [EPFL, LPI]

2.2.4. Establishment of an Industrial Review Panel (Task 7.4)

The first milestone of the PECDEMO project has been to set up an Industrial

Review Panel (IRP) within the framework of WP7. This was established to enhance the

economic impact of scientific and technological results obtained within PECDEMO.

The main objectives of this panel are (i) to evaluate the economic potential of the

obtained results, (ii) to provide a gateway for regular communication with potentia l

industrial partners and (iii) to provide scientific feedback.

Composition of the IRP:

The following persons were named for the IRP originally:

Dr. Günter Schmid / Siemens AG

Dr. Jens Busse / Evonik Industries AG – CREAVIS

Max von Romatowski / SolarWorld Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

Since Dr. Jens Busse changed the position inside Evonik, another coworker from

Evonik was asked to overtake the task. Although he accepted, we unfortunately

never received the requested CV as a basis for making a decision in the GA. That

means, the position was not filled anymore after the mid-term report.

Tasks of the IRP:

The IRP was timely informed about the Mid-term Assessment Report and two of

the three members reviewed the preliminary reports. Max von Romatoswki apologized

due to time constraints. Dr. Jens Busse and Dr. Günter Schmid both emphasized the

progress that has been made in all aspects of the project and gave us detailed


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questions and comments to the individual work packages and to the report as a

whole. Günter Schmid concluded: “Here I have seen great work, best engagement

and tremendous creativity .”

The IRP was further invited to take part in the physical meetings taking place in

Porto, Portugal on 07/10/2016 and Cologne on 07/02/2017. Only Günter Schmid

accepted the invitations and planned to come, but unfortunately had to cancel both

meetings due to severe illness.

The PECDEMO management team and the project partners highly

appreciated the efforts made by the IRP. We especially appreciated the contributions

of Günter Schmid and Jens Busse, who were present at the first meeting and both

gave us precious input for the mid-term report. Günter Schmid also already agreed to

review the second periodic report as well as the final report. We regret that Max von

Romatowski was unable to attend any meetings due to time constraints and

geographical challenges (he is located in Singapore), but we highly appreciated it

that he could be represented by Mr. Holger Neuhaus at the 3rd PECDEMO meeting in

Cologne.


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3. APPENDICES

Figure 1– Poster presentation at the FCH JU Programme Review Days 2015 in Brussels.


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Figure 2– Poster presentation at the FCH JU Programme Review Days 2016 in Brussels.

Documents

PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL DEMONSTRATOR DEVICE FOR SOLAR ... · for Solar Hydrogen ... Establishment of an Industrial Review Panel ... Krol gave an oral presentation and presented the PECDEMO