An important step for energy research in Lower Saxony and beyond: The Braunschweig Hydrogen Terminal was opened with a ceremony on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. In the future, research will be carried out here along the entire process chain, from production to storage to the use of climate-neutral hydrogen. The research project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with a total volume of over 20 million euros. The research project is being implemented as a joint project by the Steinbeis Innovation Center energieplus (siz energieplus) and the Technical University of Braunschweig (TU Braunschweig).
On the approximately 4,700m² site at Gerhard-Borchers-Straße 1 at the research airport, a research and demonstration site was created after just 15 months of construction based on a design by the jahn architektur office as a future energy center in the megawatt range for the diverse questions surrounding the topic of green hydrogen.
Research into increasing efficiency
The heart of the project is the Nexus 1000 from Enapter, an electrolyzer with a power class of 1 megawatt, which is the world’s first prototype to bring AEM technology (anion exchange membrane, AEM) to Braunschweig. This will be expanded in the further course of the project to include a zinc intermediate electrolysis step from Stoff2. In addition to the electrolyzers located outside the building, electrolysis and fuel cell test benches will be set up in the research building together with the Technical Electrocatalysis Laboratory, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Mehtap Özaslan and Dr. Frédéric Hasché. This covers the different technologies for alkaline electrolysis, PEM electrolysis (proton exchange membrane, PEM) and PEM fuel cells. As part of the project, fundamental research is being carried out into increasing the respective efficiency for all generation and conversion technologies. In addition, the research project will test and further develop the possibility of producing hydrogen through (co-)pyrolysis of hydrocarbon-containing starting materials.
Photo of Technical University of Braunschweig
Press release https://shorturl.at/pupfB