The center for fuel cell technology in Duisburg (Zentrum für BrennstoffzellenTechnik Duisburg, ZBT) used Hannover Messe as a platform to announce the name of the new ITZ center (Innovations- und Technologiezentrum für Wasserstoff, see H2-international Feb. 2022) planned for location in Nordrhein-Westfalen: TrHy. For the time being, Joachim Jungsbluth, head of fuel cell testing at the ZBT, stands ready in a three-member team as the contact point.
The name TrHy, according to ZBT managing director Peter Beckhaus, stands for the many aspects involved in dealing with hydrogen technology: Training, Transfer, Technical Research, Transparency,…
German transport minister (BMDV minister) Dr. Volker Wissing explained: “With this, we can now go on to the implementation. The BMDV is providing 290 million euros to be distributed among the four ITZ locations as start financing, and the federal states want to give the centers additional support.”
Originally, 90 million euros was to go to Bayern alone. In the interest of fair treatment of all the locations, however, the Ampel Coalition (federal administration) decided that the other innovation centers should receive equally ample funding from the federal government. TrHy, with its nucleus in Duisburg, is receiving in addition to the 72.9 million euros, likely 50 million euros from the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen.
For the time being, however, everything is still subject to funding restrictions. After that, the official founding of TrHy, with satellite locations in Aachen, Essen, Jülich and Neuss, could maybe take place this autumn. The goal of the total of four ITZ centers is to create a development, research and testing environment particularly for start-ups, founders and small and medium-sized enterprises in the hydrogen industry.