Hydrogen expert H-TEC SYSTEMS has sold a 1 MW PEM ME450 electrolyzer to the University of Stuttgart. The facility is a component of the WAVE-H2 project, a test center that is currently being built on the site of the Freudenstadt campus. In future, the center will provide innovative research opportunities in the area of "hydrogen in production".
The goal of the WAVE-H2 hydrogen test center is to further advance the decarbonization process in industry and succeed in gaining improvements and insights using the example of the overall system of the H2 industrial research platform through the help of new developments. The platform, built on an industrial scale, is divided into four areas: Hydrogen production, storage, conversion and use. The H-TEC SYSTEMS ME450 electrolyzer covers the PEM electrolysis activity in the project. The project is being funded with 36 million euros provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
By integrating various industrial consumers, research is to be carried out into, among other things, how the energy source hydrogen can be used in the production process and how it can be made more flexible in terms of supply and product quality. One particular focus will be placed on bivalent systems that can be operated with renewably-generated electricity if electricity prices are low in the future or with hydrogen in the event of a power shortage. Furthermore, the platform will make it possible to include different consumer groups which can be flexibly supplied with hydrogen, natural gas, electricity as well as heat.
In addition, the test center will be equipped with innovation modules that are to be used to investigate and scale up new technologies on a laboratory scale. After successful preliminary tests have been carried out, these technologies can then be transferred into the industrial network. The H2 industrial research platform thus creates an innovation pipeline for the industrial application of hydrogen and drives forward the decarbonization of the industrial sector. "I am very pleased to have gained H-TEC SYSTEMS, a leading provider of PEM electrolysis, as a partner for the planned innovation platform," said Prof. Alexander Sauer, Head of the Institute for Energy Efficiency in Production.
Through the sale of the electrolyzer to the University of Stuttgart, H-TEC SYSTEMS is making an important contribution to research into the area of hydrogen in industrial production. “The WAVE-H2 project will create a hydrogen-based innovation platform that not only supports industry but also plays an important role in technology development and staff training. We are proud to be part of this groundbreaking project and look forward to working with the University of Stuttgart to successfully establish the hydrogen center,” said Alexander Detke, Team Lead Sales at H-TEC SYSTEMS.