Hydrogen technologies

Hydrogen is going to play a major role in our future energy and economic systems – as energy carrier and raw material. Only with hydrogen will it be possible to make industrial production, heat production and mobility climate-neutral while also reducing geostrategic dependencies.

By 2050, for Germany alone a hydrogen demand of 400 TWh of hydrogen per year is expected. This would correspond to almost the entire electricity production of today. It is therefore very important that all hydrogen technologies are stable, robust, scalable and, most of all, cost-efficient. This is where Fraunhofer IKTS can contribute.

Hydrogen is only climate-friendly, i.e. green, if it is produced using renewable energies. The most important technology in this regard is electrolysis, which is ideally suited for coupling with wind power and photovoltaic electricity. Fraunhofer IKTS can look back on decades of experience in the development and construction of electrochemical reactors for the production and use of hydrogen. This makes industrial electrolysis one of our most important fields of activity.

Hydrogen is easy to store and transport in pipelines, making it very attractive for heavy mobility and industrial applications. Fraunhofer IKTS provides support in these fields with its solid know-how in materials science and its measuring and testing technology for tank and pipeline monitoring.

The most important contributions of Fraunhofer IKTS refer to the utilization of hydrogen: conversion of hydrogen into chemical energy carriers or basic chemicals, reconversion into electricity in fuel cells, or direct energetic use in thermal processes or the steel industry.

IKTS develops and demonstrates these technologies with its extensive system know-how as well as prototyping and testing capabilities. Fraunhofer IKTS, with its expertise and various specialized sites and technical centers, is a leading European partner for the complete value chain of current and future hydrogen technologies.