Fuel Cells - Electrochemical Power

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in Germany

Germany is without doubt the number one fuel cell country in Europe. Several thousand employees in universities, research institutes and companies are involved in the fuel cell business. Many of these organisations have also been active since the early fuel cell days, and thus hold a lot of knowledge and experience in this field. For instance Siemens, who has been working on several different fuel cell technologies since the 1950s.

Much of the funding for this work comes from the EU and the German government, but the industry itself also finances large parts of the activities. Siemens, Opel, DaimlerChrysler and Vaillant are only some of the large companies who have working groups focussing only on future fuel cell products.

The German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (DWV) is the national organisation for the introduction of hydrogen and fuel cell technology in the economy.

”The German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association promotes the introduction of hydrogen as energy carrier, primarily in the energy and transportation sector. It brings experts, companies, research institutes and so on together to let them exchange their experience, contributes to the dissemination of the results and promotes the public interest for the matter. It is therefore a "lobby" for the energy carrier of the future.”

In addition to the national organisation, there are several initiatives focussing on fuel cell and hydrogen technology in specific regions of Germany. Some of them are:

Kompetenz-Netzwerk Brennstoffzelle NRW (www.brennstoffzelle-nrw.de)
Brennstoffzellen Initiative Baden-Württemberg (www.brennstoffzelle-bw.de)
Brennstoffzellen-Technologie in Hessen (www.brennstoffzelle-hessen.de)
Brennstoffzellenverband Sachsen-Anhalt (www.brennstoffzelle-sa.de)
H2-Initiative Meckleburg-Vorpommern (www.wti-mv.de)
Wasserstoff Initiative Bayern (www.wiba.de)
Initiative Brennstoffzelle - Quelle für Wärme und Strom (www.initiative-brennstoffzelle.de)
Clean Energy Partnership (www.cep-berlin.de)

The fuel cell and hydrogen sector in Germany covers a broad spectrum of organisations and activities. This includes all stages of system development and almost all kinds of fuel cell types and applications. Basic research is done at many of the large universities, like the University of Duisburg-Essen (H₂ production, PEMFC), TU Munchen (SOFC), University of Karlsruhe (SOFC) and University of Stuttgart (membrane).

Large research institutes like Fraunhofer ISE (portable FC, H₂ production), Forschungszentrum Jülich (SOFC, DMFC +), Zentrum für Sonnenenergie und Wasserstoffforschung - ZSW (PEMFC ++), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt – DLR (DMFC, PEMFC, SOFC), Hydrogen Institute of Applied Technologies - HIAT (DMFC, MEA +) and Zentrum für Brennstoffzellentechnik - ZBT (PEMFC, H₂ production) are often involved in projects with both universities and industry, as a link between basic research and product development. (PEMFC, H₂ production) are often involved in projects with both universities and industry, as a link between basic research and product development.

The fuel cell module in the submarine
U-212A from Siemens and HDW.

Some of the best known German companies with fuel cell activities are Siemens and SiemensWestinghouse (submarines and stationary SOFC), DaimlerChrysler, Opel, Audi, BMW, VW, MAN, MTU CFC Solutions (stationary MCFC), Umicore (MEAs), Smart Fuel Cell (portable DMFC), Ballard (PEMFC), Proton Motor (PEMFC), Vaillant (CHP), Linde (gas and infrastructure) and ARAL (gas and infrastructure).

This list of organisations is far from complete, but already shows that Germany is up-front in the field of fuel cells and hydrogen. The German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association and its internet sites (www.dwv-info.de and www.h2guide.de) give more information on actors and activities in this field. Another great German internet site is ”www.die-brennstoffzelle.de”, with comprehensive information about fuel cell basics and technology development (only in German).

A MTU Hot Module in the Michelin tyre
production plant in Karlsruhe.

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