State of the artBundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie (BMBF)
Unauthorized translation of the official text by Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH
German Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology (BMBF)
December 1996
BMBF focus of funding
Hydrogen Technology and Fuel Cells
Research funding of
the last several years
Executive Summary
Hydrogen technology plays an important role in the discussion on a future environmentally benign energy supply. On the one hand the possibility is stressed to use hydrogen in a simple way for storing and transporting energy which comes from electricity generated by hydro power, wind or photovoltaics and which often is produced discontinuously or distant from the location of consumption. On the other hand, the CO2-free combustion, e.g. in fuel cells is being emphasized. Nevertheless, the availability of an inexpensive and CO2-free source of energy for the production of hydrogen as well as the existence of highly efficient and safe storage and conversion technologies are vital preconditions for a reasonable application of hydrogen.
The state of the art is as follows: Hydrogen, mainly produced from natural gas or petroleum, is being used on a large scale in industry as a chemical feedstock (in Germany about 20 billion m³/a), for laboratory applications and as fuel in space travel. In industry, the hydrogen production from fossil energy carriers, the storage and the transport in gaseous form (compressed or not), as cryogenic liquid or bound in liquids or to solids is widely applied. The same holds true for heating applications where e.g. impure hydrogen is used in the chemical industry. Nevertheless, the production from fossil energy carriers leads to the emission of CO2.
The research funding of the last several years concentrated on the following subjects:
CO2-free production of hydrogen from water and (solar) electricity; a main focus was on advanced production technologies, i.e. mainly on more efficient electrolyzers,
development and testing of automobiles with hydrogen propulsion, mainly demonstration in a fleet test of automobiles with hydrogen propulsion in Berlin (1984 until 1988),
use of hydrogen in electricity generation via fuel cells, in heat production in boilers and catalytic heating systems as well as in cold generation in catalytic cooling systems.
Since 1980, BMBF-funding of hydrogen technology has reached a total volume of approximately 210 mio DM.
The above-mentioned components and their interactions with photovoltaics have been tested for the last ten years in the demonstration project Solar Wasserstoff Bayern (SWB) in Neunburg vorm Wald (BMBF-funding 1986 until 1999). The same is true for the cooperation project in Saudi-Arabia HYSOLAR which has been put to an end after nine years of work in 1995. Presently, further R&D and demonstration projects in the field of solar hydrogen do not seem to be necessary.
Seen from an economic point of view, the use of the energy storage hydrogen presently presents major disadvantages. Large amounts of renewable electricity are not available under favorable conditions in Germany. The different conversion steps like electrolysis or electricity production in fuel cells are subject to significant (energetic) losses due to in principle technically limited efficiencies; moreover, these components are still far too expensive. Applications using conventionally produced hydrogen where market prices have to be calculated, are not leading to the desired goal: surplus hydrogen from industrial processes is in part not pure enough for the direct use e.g. in fuel cells. Moreover, it is already reasonably used by the producer (e.g. for the generation of process heat). In addition, conventional alternatives to hydrogen use are also being developed further leading to a reduction of economical fields of application (e.g. electricity transport in DC lines with low losses). We are still very far away from a depletion of global petroleum and natural gas reserves that could be replaced by hydrogen in certain fields.
From an ecological point of view, e.g. regarding the CO2 problem, exclusively the energy source used for the generation of hydrogen is of importance as hydrogen is only an energy storage.
For BMBF, the conclusion has to be drawn that research has reached the important development goals and that in principle the components for an environmentally benign hydrogen use and production are available. The application on a large scale, nonetheless, will be hindered in the foreseeable future by significant cost disadvantages or will be depending on subsidies; according to present understanding, the energy carrier hydrogen will play an economically significant role in 30 to 50 years at the earliest in case inexpensive and CO2-free sources of energy are available. Accordingly, there is no justification for the funding of research in hydrogen technologies to a larger extent.
Nevertheless, the task remains to preserve the reached state of technology (technology conservation) in view of availability for the application in market niches or later on on a large scale. Likewise, single key components of hydrogen technology have to be developed further taking into account new results of basic research, e.g. in the materials sciences, and operating experience has to gained in continuous test operation of so-called „critical components". A further task is the further technological development in view of a significant cost reduction of single key components.
A future focus of research funding in this area will therefore be on the development of fuel cell technologies. Fuel cells play a central role as they – independent of a future use of hydrogen – can be put into action in the short term using natural gas or methanol and because of high conversion efficiencies in the generation of electricity and heat. Presently, first demonstration systems are operative worldwide, e.g. in cogeneration units. Main development goal is the reduction of the specific manufacturing costs while at the same time warranting the necessary operating hours. Worldwide, different types of fuel cells are being developed with extensive funding (public funding: USA approximately 73 mio US$/yr, Japan approximately 65 mio US$/yr, 1995 figures). In collaboration with the competent industry, BMBF has chosen those technologies for funding that have a high potential of innovation and therefore promise to give German industry competitive advantages. We have reached a good technological position on the basis of existing development and manufacturing of fuel cells for specific applications (space, submarines) and of electrolyzers.
The electrolyzer is another key component that has to be developed further in order to achieve an economical application. As electrolyzer technology is similar to that of fuel cells (materials, media, process management) developments can in part be transferred.
Presently, 20 to 25 mio DM per annum are planned for project funding. In addition to big enterprises, especially Siemens, Daimler-Benz and Hoechst, development work is done by various small and medium enterprises, some universities, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the National Laboratories (Großforschungseinrichtungen – GFE) DLR and Forschungszentrum Jülich. As a rule, the funding is given to projects where companies and public research institutions collaborate. Each partner makes own financial contributions, e.g. the GFE in the framework of their base financing of approximately 20 mio DM per annum, industry contributes 50 - 70 % of their respective project costs. A very intensive exchange of information takes place between recipients of funding.
It should be noted from the full text that questions concerning the energetic use of biomass (e.g. for the production of hydrogen) are the responsibility of the Federal Ministry for Agriculture.