Prominent hydrogen projects are hit again and again: âHyScale 100â in Schleswig-Holstein, for example, came to an end in August. Manufacturers are also finding the dry spell in the hydrogen ramp-up increasingly difficult: Thyssenkrupp Nucera announced its withdrawal from the high-temperature electrolysis segment in the same month - nothing will come of the planned series production of such systems in Thuringia.
The reform of electricity network fees (âAgNesâ) is now also threatening to have a braking effect: the planned capacity-based special network fee of 4 to 7 euros per kilowatt per year will increase hydrogen production costs by up to six percent, the Energy Economics Institute at the University of Cologne announced last week.
What they have in common is that they directly connect hydrogen production with other energy conversion processes in order to adapt their driving style more precisely to the volatile electricity supply in the network and the hydrogen demand. If successful, this could increase network and cost efficiency in the redispatch-plagued energy system - a goal of the black-red coalition.
The Berlin start-up Stoff 2 calls it âdriving on the lineâ. Its combination of hydrogen production and electricity storage is intended to enable industrial companies to consistently and permanently feed exactly the amount of hydrogen (H2) they need into their processes when the amount of green electricity from the grid is volatile. And at a lower cost than a combination of battery storage and electrolyser.
Holger Klaassen from the copper manufacturer Aurubis, for example, emphasized how crucial a steady, safe flow of H2 will be at the Handelsblatt hydrogen summit this week. Aurubis needs the energy source reliably âat the factory border,â said Klaassen.
The Stoff 2 demonstration system âLizzeyâ, recently presented to the specialist public in Berlin, stores green electricity in a zinc layer and releases the energy as hydrogen at a gas electrode when required, as the start-up promises. Technical director Andrew Zwinkels ironically describes the electrochemical reactor, which is housed in two freight containers, as a âwasher-dryerâ that combines two work processes in one machine. Charging time: four hours, discharging in the form of hydrogen over twelve to 24 hours. The company wants to configure units with an output of five megawatts each for industrial customers once it has started series production.
Stoff-2 founder Alexander Voigt also sees technologies such as zinc intermediate-step electrolysis as an opportunity for Germany to counter Chinese competition and secure a leading position in the technology race.
In view of the energy transition being slowed down by the black-red coalition, however, only if the conditions for scaling innovative technologies were improved: âThe new antibiotics are ready,â says Voigt. The weakening economic location Germany still lacks âthe right clinical studies and then the prescriptionâ in order not to lose business with key technologies to the competition in Asia again.
Felix Fischer, co-founder and operational managing director of the Bavarian energy system manufacturer Reverion, is optimistic about the current situation and demand, but he says about the federal government's energy and policy and conflicts such as those surrounding the EEG and the grid connection package: "What would help us most is clarity. The constant delays are damaging." This and tenders that were too short-term reduced planning security, âand the renewed gas network access regulation could have come a long time ago,â said Fischer.
Reverion's container-modular systems can use a reversible fuel cell to generate electricity from biomethane and hydrogen, but conversely can also produce hydrogen and then green methane using green electricity. When converting electrical energy into H2 and back, Reverion promises âround-trip efficiency of up to 75 percent.â The connection makes âextremely economic sense â instead of pure electrolysis, instead of pure back-up gas power plants,â says Fischer.
Reverion, which employs around 200 people, is fighting for access for its facilities to the medium and high pressure pipelines of the natural gas network, which is partially being converted into a hydrogen network. The company says it receives a wide range of inquiries - interested parties range from large energy suppliers to farms. In practice, Reverion systems have so far operated primarily on the basis of biogas and biomethane, for example in agricultural operations in Bavaria.
On Tuesday, the company, founded in 2022 by engineers and researchers from the Technical University of Munich, closed a new round of financing for $175 million. It now wants to increase its manufacturing capacity to 250 megawatts per year and its workforce to up to 800 jobs. Fischer and his colleagues are also aiming to build energy systems for data centers.
The transmission system operator Transnet BW is considering a battery hybrid concept with electrolysis for its emerging network booster in Kupferzell, Baden-WĂŒrttemberg: an H2 turbine will convert hydrogen produced by an electrolyzer back into electricity and feed it in so that it supports the function of the network booster.
Grid boosters, which are set up in several places in Germany and connected to the transmission grid, are intended to quickly absorb amounts of electricity that overload the grid and release them again when necessary. The systems are equipped with battery storage as standard. In its âHydrogREenBoostâ project, Transnet BW had scientists investigate how a hydrogen unit can be technically and economically integrated.
Not a turbine, but a new hydrogen engine that could be suitable for such a hybrid combination was tested by the Finnish energy system manufacturer WÀrtsilÀ in the Spanish network in the summer.
The goal here too: more flexible electrolysis operation, adapted to the fluctuating electricity supply from renewable energies. The combination system increases the overall efficiency of hydrogen production, reduces wear and allows the economical use of critical metal raw materials, promises Power to Hydrogen. The company from the state of Ohio implements specific projects primarily in Europe, for example in the port of Antwerp.
Manufacturers of hybrid systems are counting on politicians, regulatory authorities, energy and industrial companies to broaden their focus on the interfaces and possible synergies between green gas and electricity - this could pave the way for them out of the niche and into a broad market.
But the system concepts that seem obvious at first glance do not automatically become automatic successes, as the example of the Transnet BW network booster shows: âThere are currently no plans to implement the HydrogREenBoost concept at the Kupferzell network booster location,â said a company spokeswoman when asked. This requires âfurther research, pilot projects and regulatory clarificationsâ.
