Researchers at the Fraunhofer IFF in Germany are designing the distributed and modular production and distribution of green hydrogen for industry, business and transportation throughout the value chain—a hydrogen factory of the future.

Electricity sourced from sun and wind is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in a process called electrolysis. The hydrogen is stored and can be converted by fuel cells in vehicles back into electricity that powers them. We primarily have vehicle fleets with vans and forklifts operating in industrial and business parks in mind here.

The hydrogen factory of the future. © Fraunhofer IFF

---

We additionally want to supply electricity, gas and heat to industry. The hydrogen produced during electrolysis can be injected into the gas grid, used as fuel, converted into methane or methanol, and made available as industrial feedstock.

—Dr. Torsten Birth, a research scientist at Fraunhofer IFF

The researchers are developing modularly expandable subcomponents that can be interconnected and integrated in business and industrial parks, which will enable them to implement their hydrogen factory design. Electrochemical or biochemical processes are used to produce hydrogen, depending on the conditions at the site.

It is not possible to build wind and PV plants everywhere. We are opting for site-specific solutions and using biogas plants for production where possible. Plans for a pilot plant near Gommern in Saxony-Anhalt are on the drawing board. The outcome is always green hydrogen.

—Dr. Birth

The Fraunhofer IFF is working together with MicroPro GmbH and Streicher Anlagenbau GmbH & Co. KG in the HyPerFerMent I project to produce renewable hydrogen from biomass. They are employing a special microbial fermentation process similar to biogas production to produce hydrogen directly from organic waste.

The metabolites of certain bacteria produce a gas mixture containing CO₂ and fifty percent H₂, which can be easily purified by subsequently separating the CO₂.

Fermentative production of green hydrogen will play a major role in distributed production of this energy carrier in the future.

—Dr. Birth

Researchers at the Fraunhofer IFF have teamed up with Anleg GmbH to build one of the subcomponents, the Mobile Modular H2 Port (MMH2P), a portable hydrogen filling station for short trips of up to 200 kilometers. Expandable pressure systems with compressors on a trailer can be refilled and can also dispense hydrogen. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project.

Since systemically integrated hydrogen production is important to the researchers, they will not only be using the hydrogen produced during electrolysis but also the oxygen—for welding processes or for ozonation in sewage treatment plants, for example. Micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides and cosmetics can be removed from wastewater when ozone is introduced. Another use scenario envisions using the oxygen in agriculture to desulfurize biogas plants.

The research team acquired expertise for the implementation of their hydrogen factory in the projects Energieregion Stassfurt 2020 and Energieregion Ostharz. A regional energy plan was implemented in these projects to switch the energy supply in different sectors (power, gas, heat, and transportation) from fossil fuels to regionally produced renewables and renewable sector coupling systems were developed.