Hydrogen economy driven by the region
Businesses in the Region Hannover are at the start of an extensive transformation process, away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources and more energy efficiency. Making drastic reductions in CO2 emissions and energy consumption is the only way for the region to make its contribution to reaching the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement. The hydrogen economy and its development will have a special role to play, with the region launching its hydrogen strategy in 2021. Since 2022, it has been called “Generation H2”.
Hydrogen is a formula for implementing the widespread use of renewable energy from wind, solar, hydro and biomass sources, thus achieving climate neutrality. As decided by the Region Hannover in 2021, this goal will be achieved already in 2035. At the moment, H2, to use its chemical formula, seems to be one of the best ways of solving the storage problem that has prevented renewable energy sources from becoming established. Hydrogen offers extremely high energy density: three times higher than with diesel and a hundred times higher than with an electric car battery.
A catalyst: Generation H2
But building a hydrogen economy also means creating new, seminal supply chains that include both the generation and the subsequent use of hydrogen. Given the current state of technology, this would affect the mobility sector in particular.
Hydrogen offers considerable economic and ecological potential, especially for driving railway vehicles, trucks, buses and ships. This potential is all the more significant for the region in view of the tens of thousands of people working in the automotive, transport and logistic industries of the mobility sector. In the long term, regionally generated hydrogen could help to refuel airplanes at Hannover-Langenhagen airport, as well as reducing the high CO2 emissions caused by cement production in the region. Up to now, only one regional company makes tentative use of hydrogen as a source of energy.
This is the context in which the Region Hannover’s Generation H2 aims to act as a catalyst. The intention is for companies to work with experts and research institutions to turn ideas into reality, on a project basis and also at regular network events and annual conferences. By 2024, the Region Hannover wants to make 6.5 million Euro available for implementing its hydrogen strategy. Furthermore, since July 2022 it has been involved in the Leine-Weser hydrogen network alongside Hannover CCI (Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and various rural districts.
The central element of the hydrogen strategy is the Hydrogen Campus Hannover, which receives 600,000 Euro in funding from the region. It pools the expertise of various institutes belonging to Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) at the Mechanical Engineering Campus in Garbsen to help companies with implementing their projects. The intention is also for the researchers at Hannover University of Applied Sciences and their energy cluster to become integrated in the project at a later point in time.
Researchers from the LUH for example are helping Funke Wärmeaustauscher Apparatebau from Gronau to develop a compact, highly efficient heat exchanger made by 3D printing, for use at hydrogen refuelling stations – an important part of the energy transition. Without efficient heat exchangers, the hydrogen would overheat and damage components during the rapid refilling of fuel cells already used in trains, buses and trucks, and which could also be used in future in ships and private households.
Hannover funds the green economy
Based on the 17 goals for global development of the United Nations, the Hannover region presented 2022 important cornerstones of future regional economic and innovation policy in its Green Economy Strategy, e.g. small and medium-sized companies are supported in the field of research and development with the “Green Economy” funding guideline.
Maximum funding of 10,000 Euro is available to make a project idea ready for practical implementation via technology and knowledge transfer with the assistance of experts or regional research partners. The first projects are already being funded.
For example, a new top-quality printer head by the 3D printing specialists Umeleon from Hannover reduces material wastage during production by about 60 percent from 75 kg to 30 kg per month. (Picture 2)
Cornflour is already being used as the material for production and sales of the 3D company logo. The choice of raw material was a deliberate decision to make the production of 3D company logos and signs far more sustainable.
On the other hand, Njordvind, a company that develops vertical wind turbines, has received support to develop a functioning prototype, with a focus on integrating the monitoring sensors as well finding suitable, sustainable lightweight materials. The development of structurally compact vertical wind turbines that can also be used in populated areas should help small and medium-sized businesses in particular to become independent of fossil fuels.
Other funding projects in the Region Hannover refer to natural landscaping of company premises (AußenstelleNatur), free consultation for improved energy efficiency (e.coBizz) and environmental management for savings in energy, water, emissions, waste and raw materials (Ökoprofit Hannover). The region is increasingly looking at urban and commercial neighbourhoods as a whole, supporting owners and companies with consultation services on a broad scale , as is currently the case in Gehrden-Ost and Bissendorf. Furthermore, in 2021 the region ensured that funds for existing and new commercial estates were tied to specific sustainability criteria.
Sewage plant that produces hydrogen . . . . .
The Region Hannover assigns a special role to public companies in terms of implementing the hydrogen economy. One such company is Stadtentwässerung Hannover (Hannover waste water utility) with its Herrenhausen sewage plant. This is where the Sewage Plant H project is being prepared: a project of European magnitude that is being funded with roughly 6.4 million Euro by Lower Saxony’s Environment Ministry.
According to the plan, the sewage plant will be producing hydrogen by the end of 2025, using “green” electricity that is bought in on the one hand, but also generated in the sewage plant’s own new cogeneration units that were commissioned at the end of 2021 using biogas from the plant’s digestion towers.
. . . and supplies Hannover with district heating
The heat generated during the production of hydrogen by electrolysis will be fed into Hannover’s growing district heating network. In turn, the produced hydrogen will be used to refuel the buses operated by ÜSTRA and Regiobus. Furthermore, the pressurised oxygen resulting from electrolysis could be used for sewage treatment. Up to now, this has been done by turbo compressors that aerate the clarifiers with aspirated ambient air, accounting for a large share of the huge energy requirements of a sewage plant. On average, sewage plants are responsible for around 20 percent of a city’s public-sector power consumption.
Into the future: Public transport and waste management rely on hydrogen propulsion
The transport operators ÜSTRA and regiobus, owned to nearly 20 % respectively almost wholly by the region, both want to purchase two buses with hydrogen fuel cells by 2023. In the long term, this is worthwhile for all routes where vehicles cover more than 300 kilometres each day, particularly when travelling in rural areas. The necessary refuelling infrastructure is to be installed at the regiobus depot in Neustadt am Rübenberge, and later also at the new depot in Weetzen. The new depot is currently still in the planning stage and could be commissioned in 2026/27. It is being designed for an extensive fleet of hydrogen buses.
The Abfallwirtschaft Region Hannover (aha – waste management authority), another subsidiary of the region, also aims to convert its entire fleet of currently 240 waste collection vehicles to fuel cell vehicles by 2045. The hydrogen required for this is to be generated in Lahe waste treatment centre by means of so-called biomethane plasmalysis.
This method consumes only one quarter of the energy used by conventional electrolysis. Instead of water, the methane gas generated in the fermentation of residual and organic waste in Lahe is used as reactant. In the course of the project, the technological maturity should be elevated from “prototype in operational environment” to “industrial maturity”. The project is being funded with 2.6 million Euro by Lower Saxony’s Ministry of the Environment and supported by the climate protection agency of the Region Hannover.
For hydrogen fuels to prevail on the truck and bus sector, there will have to be a dense infrastructure, which currently consists of just two hydrogen refuelling stations that are both located within the capital city’s urban area. Hannover’s energy provider and fuel station operator Mundt is therefore planning a truck stop directly at the Airport Business Park. Besides conventional fuels, liquid gas and battery charging points, the 20 million Euro facility will also offer hydrogen in all standard pressure levels. As it stands today, this would be the region’s second refuelling station offering 350 bar for trucks and buses, in an ideal position on the A 352 motorway in the direct vicinity of important axes in the motorway network (A 2, A 7).
Hydrogen know-how makes the difference
Building a hydrogen economy is inconceivable without qualified skilled workers. The German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association estimates that up to 70,000 new jobs could emerge in this sector by 2030. The Region Hannover is therefore working with other partners to promote various initial and advanced training possibilities. These include the Hydrogen Economy Certificate, an in-service further training scheme offered by the Universities of Hannover and Oldenburg together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology IWES. The scheme was launched in September 2022.
Other training projects are bundled at the Hydrogen Campus in Garbsen. (Picture 1) These include the multicopter project, which is a hydrogen-powered aircraft developed by students of various disciplines. It aims to implement H2 expertise in teaching and learning. Furthermore, the hydrogen basic research lab gives students and specialists from skilled crafts firms and industrial companies an opportunity to acquire and broaden their knowledge about the generation and combustion of hydrogen. Finally, Hannover CCI is planning to offer a certified hydrogen course for engineers and other qualified staff from companies in the mobility, logistics, production and energy sectors.
Header picture: Achim Wagner/stockAdobe.com
