Hydrogen Technology Centre (HTC)

In the HTC, we work in the thematic fields of photoelectrochemical hydrogen production and hydrogen storage from fundamental research to development of prototype systems.

The HTC was established to handle the topics of photoelectrochemical hydrogen production and hydrogen storage in a holistic approach from fundamental research to development of prototype systems.
We want to demonstrate materials and technologies up to a “proof of concept” on a scale accepted by industry and end users (such as facilities for hydrogen production on the square metre scale, hydrogen storage on a kilogram scale) and thus pave the way for industrial applications. Scientific questions related to technological scale-up from the laboratory to the application realm here are to be resolved.
In photoelectrochemical hydrogen production, the efficiency achieved with small samples in the laboratory so far could not be reproduced on a technical scale. Systematic studies with larger electrode surfaces are therefore of uttermost importance.

Industrial high energy ball mill of the HTC in ist outstation in Olpe, Siegerland, Germany (100 l milling vial, manufacturer: ZOZ GmbH, Olpe, Type CM100)

In hydrogen storage, this applies to investigating the correlation between production parameters and properties of storage materials. We were able to identify the energy input during milling as a key parameter on a laboratory scale. Other parameters, however, could also play a role in larger mills. With larger material quantities in storage tanks, the heat production and the necessity of heat transfer during loading and unloading of hydrogen increases proportionally. The heat transfer therefore plays an important role and must be taken more into consideration when designing larger storage systems.