RWTH: H2Giga: hydrogen in series production

RWTH Aachen involved in Germany’s entry into the hydrogen economy


Green hydrogen, which is generated with energy from renewable sources, is one of the most important carriers of the energy transition. In order to support Germany’s entry into the hydrogen economy , the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has launched the three key hydrogen projects H 2 Giga, H 2 Mare and TransHyDE with a planned funding volume of a total of 740 million euros. By 2025, Germany should take on a leading role in hydrogen technologies. RWTH Aachen teams, which have bundled their expertise in the field of hydrogen in the Center for Sustainable Hydrogen Systems, are also involved in several research projects to develop the technology for producing hydrogen on a large scale.

H 2 Giga: The lead project electrolysis

H 2 Giga is numerically the largest of the three lead projects. Over 130 institutions from business and science are working with an announced funding volume of around 500 million euros on the production of green hydrogen on an industrial scale. Green hydrogen is the key molecule with which renewable electrical energy can be converted into chemical energy and thus made storable. The storage of electrical energy, in turn, is an essential prerequisite for converting Germany’s energy industry to renewable sources.

The production of hydrogen from water and electricity, known as “electrolysis”, has already achieved considerable technical maturity, but is not yet available on a large scale. The electrolysers are currently still being built by hand, with correspondingly high costs and low production capacity. The goal of H 2 Giga is to prepare the industrialization of water electrolysis for the production of green hydrogen and to lay the foundation for competitive production on a gigawatt scale by 2025.