GreenHydroChem Central Germany to be funded

Today in Berlin, Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier selected “GreenHydroChem Central Germany” as one of the winners in the “Real-world Laboratories of the Energy Revolution” ideas competition of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). With over 100 megawatts, the world's largest electrolysis plant project for the production of green hydrogen was planned by partners Siemens AG, Linde AG and the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS and is now entering the concretization phase.

GreenHydroChem wasserstoff Leuna
© BMWi
20 real-world laboratories were successful in the ideas competition.

“Together with our partners, we will demonstrate the generation and storage of green hydrogen as well as its application in various utilization paths within the framework of sector coupling,” explains Florian Bergen, project manager at Siemens and overall coordinator of the GreenHydroChem real-world laboratory. “This will be the first industrial-scale supply of green hydrogen to the 'Middle German Chemical Triangle' region.” The use of renewable energies from the wind and sun to produce environmentally friendly hydrogen or to refine it into CO2-neutral chemical raw materials or fuels (e-fuels) will make a significant contribution to the reduction of CO2 in the mobility and chemical sector.

Green hydrogen reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 91%. The GreenHydroChem real-world laboratory will thus make an important contribution to the transformation of energy systems in the industrial value chains and to the further development of the Central German economic region. GreenHydroChem Central Germany will be implemented in Leuna by 2024.

“With this step, we are bringing an innovative technology from Germany to the industrial scale, which is already of great interest to regions with high installed wind and photovoltaic capacities,” explains Armin Schnettler, Head of Corporate Energy Research at Siemens Corporate Technology. “This way, Germany can not only position itself as a global pioneer in the energy revolution, but also give new impetus to our country's reputation as a leading export nation.”

Siemens AG and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, together with the Free State of Saxony, decided as recently as Monday to build a hydrogen innovation center in Görlitz. “The knowledge gained there will flow directly into the real-world laboratory. This will make it even clearer what outstanding potential hydrogen and power-to-X have for implementing sector coupling and mastering the shaping of structural change with innovative technologies,” says Ralf B. Wehrspohn, Head of the Fraunhofer IMWS and future board member of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft for Technology Marketing and Business Models.

Here you can watch the image film "Germany's Next Generation Energy Hubs", in which the Fraunhofer IMWS was involved.