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Affordable hydrogen
2 H2O O2 + H2
Question: What’s an electrolyser?
Anyone who wants to use hydrogen as an energy source needs electrolysers. This is because even though hydrogen is abundant on earth, it is extremely reactive and therefore bound in molecules, such as water (H2O). Electrolysers split water into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). Fuel cells can convert the hydrogen into electricity, which then powers engines, and into heat, which can be used. Alternatively, the hydrogen can be burned directly in blast furnaces.
Affordable hydrogen
H-BRS launches the start of the hydrogen economy
Bringing about the energy transition requires an efficient green hydrogen economy, and the energy carrier must become cheaper to produce. That’s why the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is making 700 million euros available to fund hydrogen research. H-BRS is involved in two of three flagship hydrogen projects – the mass production of electrolysers (see box) and the development of a hydrogen transport infrastructure.
Future-proof network infrastructure
TransHyDE-Sys-MechaMod is the name of one of the two projects. Project manager Tanja Clees explains the unwieldy name. “TransHyDE is about how hydrogen can be transported. The additions ‘Sys’ and ‘MechaMod’ refer to our research focus. We analyse the transport system in its entirety in conjunction with the more than 20 project partners, and in the H-BRS project we model the mechatronic components necessary in the pipeline network.” MechaMod essentially examines gas grids that are to be converted from natural gas to hydrogen.
Professor Clees wants to support this transition with simulation models. “More than just pipes are needed to get hydrogen from A to B. We’re focusing on issues like simulating large electrolysers, which break water down into its basic components hydrogen and oxygen, thereby delivering the hydrogen to the grids. We’re also analysing waste heat from the various plants as well as the effects of local hydrogen quality.” In her simulation models, the grid expert scales the components to orders of magnitude of up to (several) 100 megawatts, as they will be needed in the future to support the energy transition.
New generation of electrolysis converters
This future task can only be achieved if hydrogen production becomes more efficient, too. This is where the HyLeiT sub-project led by Professor Marco Jung comes in. Together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE, SMA Solar Technology AG, Infineon Technologies AG and TU Dresden, he is researching efficient and grid-serving electrolysis converters that generate the direct current needed for electrolysis. “We want to build the rectifier technology of the future,” explains the power electronics expert. Technical improvements are needed to achieve this. Moreover, rectifiers for electrolysers must become much more efficient and cost-effective in the future. “To make green hydrogen more competitive compared to conventional sources of energy, we must greatly reduce the costs of the system technology compared to what is currently state-of-the-art. This is an important part of our research project,” Jung explains.
