The NWN talks to Lars Eichhorn, research associate at the Institute for Technical Combustion and researcher in the WaVe innovation laboratory, about the efficient combustion of hydrogen.

Combined heat and power units offer an efficient way to heat medium to large properties in particular. Efficiencies of over 90 percent can be achieved - but the combustion of conventional fuels such as natural gas or diesel produces pollutants such as CO2 or particulate matter. In order to make operation climate-friendly, a project funded by the state of Lower Saxony aims to enable the use of hydrogen in CHP units - in the long term and in a climate-friendly way.

In Oldenburg, the company schrand.energy GmbH & Co. KG is planning a CO2-neutral and energy-autonomous, company-owned new building. The concept, called Schrand Energy Plant, is being developed from the outset as a modular, reproducible and scalable overall solution so that it can be transferred to other buildings. 

The hydrogen lead project "TransHyDE" aims to further develop transport options for hydrogen in a technology-open manner and to create standards in order to enable the development of the hydrogen infrastructure and to support the market ramp-up.

For the successful market ramp-up of green hydrogen, it must be produced cost-effectively. Offshore wind energy can be a good tool in this context - especially if the hydrogen can be produced directly on site without cost-intensive infrastructure. This is exactly what is currently being investigated in "H2Mare".

In order to build up high capacities of efficient and cost-effective electrolyzers, series production of electrolyzers is needed in the near future - because currently their production is still largely time-consuming and cost-intensive. The hydrogen lead project "H2Giga" is therefore investigating the series production of electrolyzers.

The Regio Plus project uses the Emsland region as an example to analyse how companies can ensure low-CO2 production in a future energy system with the help of sector coupling and the use of green hydrogen.

Hydrogen is to be established as an energy supplier in the Wesermarsch region. To this end, hydrogen is to be produced and used directly on site, but also stored, e.g. by converting the Huntorf storage power plant.

If hydrogen is to find widespread use in the mobility sector, effective solutions for the refuelling process are needed. The "THEWA" project aims to research and provide overall system concepts for future hydrogen refuelling stations.

In the course of the project "H2-Wegweiser", an assessment basis is to be developed with the help of which hydrogen projects can be evaluated and classified at different levels.