**AHEAD** is a world first demonstration of the scalability of continuous water electrolysis above the critical point of water, at supercritical conditions. AHEAD stands for Affordable Hydrogen from Electrolysis Accelerating Decarbonisation, the first important step in the realisation of a scalable and deployable ultra-efficient green hydrogen generator.

Leveraging a lead established through a single-cell proof of concept, Supercritical Solutions Ltd. (SC) will optimise their single cell before crucially joining multiple cells together into a mini-module. **AHEAD** sees an in depth analysis into catalysis and fluid dynamics using a combination of CFD modelling, metal additive manufacturing and testing to build a strong understanding of the kinetic and mass transport properties of supercritical water electrolysis. The output will be an optimised mini-module capable of producing 0.125 kg/h (5kWel).

Large scale SC electrolysers have the potential to decarbonise a £140Bn hydrogen industry responsible for approximately 700million tonnes of CO2 in 2019\. An industry that by 2050 needs to be a zero-carbon hydrogen industry which is expected to be worth \>£500Bn. SC's electrolyser offers efficiencies that, at scale, offer a lower cost for hydrogen than can be achieved by fossil fuels. **AHEAD** will accelerate a net zero future enabled by high efficiency green hydrogen.

How does this benefit the UK? Take for example, the biggest industrial polluters, the foundation industries: fossil fuel using, high heat generating, high CO2 emitting sectors that are some of the hardest to abate due to electrification not being suitable. Foundation industries produce 75% of all the material in the UK's economy and are vital for the UK's manufacturing and construction sectors worth £52Bn annually. Responsible for around 50million tonnes of CO2 per year. They use the equivalent of 12million tonnes of oil each year, excluding electricity (from any source), or 391GWh per day on average, which is equivalent to ~12k tonnes of hydrogen a day. Hydrogen is an enabler to a net zero transition in these industries with the highest energy density of all fuels and an ability to produce high grade heat or power with only water as a by-product.

SC's benefit in efficiency reduces the size of renewable and electrolyser installations by 29% and decreases the cost of operation by 24% versus a PEM electrolyser. This offers industrial emitters a drastically reduced cost to achieve net zero and delivers benefits versus today's direct costs such as carbon caps and indirect costs such as reputational damage.