Projects

aha: Into the future with green hydrogen

On Tuesday, Environment and Energy Minister Olaf Lies presented Waste Management Hannover Region (aha) with a funding decision worth around 2.6 million euros for a hydrogen plasma analysis project. As part of the project, green hydrogen is to be produced on aha's premises with the help of bio-methane produced during waste treatment. This is then to be used in aha's vehicle fleet, which is increasingly being converted to hydrogen propulsion. In this context, a new fuel cell waste collection vehicle was also presented in more detail on 5 July.

Waste collection vehicles run on clean green hydrogen obtained from mechanical-biological waste treatment. This is not a vision of the future, because this is precisely the plan of the Waste Management Region Hannover (aha): The entire waste collection vehicle fleet is to be gradually converted to fuel cell-powered hydrogen vehicles. In order to supply its own hydrogen filling stations at the vehicle sites in the long term, the green hydrogen is to be produced and stored on the company's own premises.

"Bio-methane is produced during the biological-mechanical treatment of waste. This can either be used or further processed. Here, hydrogen is produced from bio-methane, which moves fuel cell-powered waste collection vehicles. This advances hydrogen mobility, which is a sensible solution for commercial vehicles with high energy requirements. As the No.1 hydrogen country, we are very happy to promote this. I am convinced that the regional politicians will approve the project for aha and support it successfully," says Olaf Lies, Lower Saxony's Minister for the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection, on the occasion of the handover of the funding decision of approximately 2.6 million euros to aha.

Closed-loop approach to the production of green hydrogen

Partners in the project, which takes a sustainable closed-loop approach to the production of green hydrogen, are the research and development partner Graforce GmbH from Berlin and the Klimaschutzagentur Region Hannover gGmbH. Region President Steffen Krach emphasises: "The aim is to set up the public waste disposal company in a sustainable way in the long term. The climate goals can only be achieved if an efficient climate economy can be developed. On the way to a climate-neutral Hannover Region, we are setting a bold milestone with this project for a carbon-free economy as part of the energy transition."

Up to now, methane gas has been converted into electricity in block heating plants at the Hannover landfill site. "The methane comes from the outgassing waste from the landfill mountain and from the biological waste treatment plant," says Christine Karasch, Regional Councillor and Head of the Department for Environment, Planning and Building. "Methane gas is produced by fermenting residual and biological waste, which is converted to hydrogen and to carbon by bio-methane plasma-lysis using high-voltage technology." Compared to the conventional production of hydrogen, plasmalysis requires only a quarter of the amount of energy.

34.5 tonnes of CO2 saved per year

"With the new hydrogen-powered rubbish truck, 132 kilogrammes of CO2 can be saved every day, which is about 34.5 tonnes a year. We are thus setting a milestone in the topic of emission savings," explains aha Managing Director Thomas Schwarz. "This is because the EU "Clean vehicle directive" for the procurement of low-emission vehicles, in conjunction with the "Clean vehicle procurement law", sets a binding quota for the new procurement of zero-emission vehicles by 2025. In this way, aha reduces carbon dioxide emissions and thus greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere."

aha uses 230 waste collection vehicles every day in the Hannover region, which cover a distance of between 80 and 120 kilometres and consume an average of 55 litres of diesel per 100 kilometres. "In contrast, with the hydrogen vehicles, which are also funded by the state of Lower Saxony, around twelve kilogrammes of hydrogen are enough for two collection tours of eight hours each," says Frank Bier, deputy head of waste and recyclables collection at aha. "With a payload of 10.5 tonnes, the vehicle can load just as much waste as a conventional refuse collection vehicle."