The project, called the Innovation and Technology Center for Hydrogen (ITZ for Hydrogen), has been set up to help companies develop hydrogen activities in the transport sector, including in the areas of testing and certification, which are not yet available on the market.
The project will also support international cooperation to work toward common standards and offer SMEs with development environments to help them prepare for international competition.
ITZ for Hydrogen will have four different hubs – in Chemnitz, Duisburg, Pfeffenhausen and a north German cluster, including Bremen/Bremerhaven, Hamburg, and Stade, for ship and aviation applications.
The ITZ Chemnitz hub will focus on the vehicle drive train, the fuel cell system, the fuel cell stack and their individual components for passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, and rail vehicles. The services range from research, testing, inspection, certification, training, and education to profitable hydrogen laboratories and hydrogen workshops for startups, SMEs, developers, suppliers, and vehicle manufacturers.
ITZ Duisburg, meanwhile, will primarily examine compressed gas hydrogen applications in land-based modes of transport and inland waterway vessels; ITZ Pfeffenhausen will focus on on-board storage, drive integration and refueling heavy commercial vehicles, passenger cars and small aircraft or urban air aviation; and ITZ North on hydrogen and fuel cell applications in aviation and shipping.
“Hydrogen is the chance to make large parts of mobility and the climate-neutral economy. Before we can optimally use hydrogen as an energy carrier, we still have to invest a great deal in research and development. This we do. The feasibility study for an innovation and technology center confirms the approach of the BMDV. Now we can start implementing it,” said Dr Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, Germany.