by Hydrogeit | Mar 26, 2025 | News
The March issue of H2-international – the e-journal on hydrogen and fuel cells – is published today. The special thing about this issue is that this is the last issue to be published by Hydrogeit Verlag. From April 1st, all further issues will be published by Gentner Verlag. This applies to both H2-international and HZwei – the German magazine on hydrogen and fuel cells.
The March issue of H2-international is published exactly one week before the Hannover Messe, where important industry representatives from the H2 and FC community will gather from March 31, 2025 to present and discuss the latest trends and important developments. Hydrogeit Verlag and Gentner Verlag will be represented on site with a joint stand. You are welcome to visit us on the fair ground in hall 13 at stand B14.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Sven Geitmann
Verlagsinhaber & HZwei-Herausgeber
by Hydrogeit | Mar 12, 2025 | Germany, Market, News
In the electrolyzer sector, not only Enapter needed to bury its production plans in Saerbeck last year (see H2-international Jan. 2025). Quest One is also struggling and announced the dismissal of 120 employees in February 2025. Quest One had just, with a lot of pomp, opened the production hall in northern Hamburg last autumn (see H2-international Jan. 2025), but now has initiated a “program to strengthen the company’s competitiveness” for the north.
Shortly before, the MAN subsidiary had presented a new management. With effect from February 1, 2025, Michael Meister was appointed the new CEO. He is supposed to take over the strategic management of the company temporarily and follows Robin von Plettenberg, who is leaving the company at his own request. The construction of a PEM electrolyzer in Augsburg was announced just four days later. The new demo electrolyzer is to be integrated into a test bench on the MAN Energy Solutions factory grounds for illustrative purposes.
by Hydrogeit | Mar 11, 2025 | Germany, Market, News, Policy
The current tense economic situation does not stop at the H2 industry. Home Power Solutions (HPS) now had to step into a series of insolvencies. The Berlin company is currently looking for investors who enable the Heliocentris successor to continue working or restructuring. Dr. Henrik Colell, the co-founder and long-time managing director of both HPS and the predecessor Heliocentris, left HPS in October 2024. His long-standing companion and former CEO Zeyad Abul-Ella has not been there since December 2023. In mid-January 2025, the new chairman of the board was Roman Thomaßin, who succeeded Matthias Holder.
Before that, companies such as Proton Motor and HH2E (see reports in H2-international Jan. 2025) had already released employees. Inhouse Engineering also registered insolvency at the end of 2024, but has now found a company, Schubert GmbH, that is taking over part of the assets. However, what will become of the previous fuel cell activities and In-house 5000 is currently still open.
Fig.: After layoffs, Hydrogenious is getting new money and a new management team
Hydrogenious-LOHC-C-Level-1200×675.jpg
Source: Hydrogenious
Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies also announced in December 2024 that it would have release about a quarter of its staff. This affected around 50 employees at the Neuss and Erlangen locations. In mid-February 2025, however, the message came in that the chemical company Covestro and the Winkelmann Group, Chevron Technology Ventures and Anglo American Platinum would invest 17 million euros as part of a new funding round to secure the business ramp-up.
It is currently still open whether things will run similarly happily with Quantron and Hyzon. Quantron AG initiated the insolvency proceedings on January 1, 2025, after the manufacturer of H2 commercial vehicles had played well to the media for years. Company founder Andreas Haller wanted to renovate the company himself. However, there seems to be no hope for the US Hyzon Motors. After the manufacturer of FC trucks prepared employees for layoffs at the end of 2024, the board voted in January to dissolve the company.
The company Pepper Motion, which, among other things, carried out the system integration of the electrical drive train in H2 commercial vehicles from Paul Nutzfahrzeuge, has been in the insolvency self-administration process since February 2024. In the summer of 2024, however, a Turkish investor bought up Pepper, so its future is secured for the time being. In the meantime, Paul ramped down its H2 activities significantly. In mid-February 2025, the Vilshofen-based truck builders announced that a mediation agreement was concluded with the Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle center in Germany in order to promote the sale of the PH2P® hydrogen trucks.
With Nikola, another commercial vehicle provider is currently threatening to decline, so things could run similarly there as with the US provider of alternative H2 storage for aircraft Universal Hydrogen, who went bankrupt last summer.
by Hydrogeit | Mar 11, 2025 | Germany, hydrogen development, Market, News, Trade fairs and congresses
Start of series production of container solutions
Transport iron to use hydrogen: The new H2 storage technology of Ambartec AG conveys iron granulates and obtains the hydrogen on site through oxidation. In mid-February 2025, Ambartec, together with Purem by Eberspächer, signed a cooperation agreement (MOU) to prepare a serial production of this iron-nugget hydrogen storage and for its transport in standard 20-foot containers.
Dresden-based Ambartec AG has worked on a storage and transport process for hydrogen in recent years, in which no hydrogen is transported at all, but iron. Iron, which is available in the form of small nuggets, removes oxygen from the water when these two media are brought together, that is, it rusts or oxidizes. What remains is hydrogen that can be used on site. The oxidized iron is then transported back so that the iron nuggets can be reused for the next transport, which works more than 5,000 times. The storage is renewed by reducing the iron oxide with added hydrogen.
Iron nuggets are relatively easy to store in unpressurized vessels. Several of these vessels are then installed in containers so that they can be transported easily and in large quantities. Matthias Rudloff, CEO and one of the co-founders of Ambartec AG, told H2-international: “We’re not limited by the German emissions law nor any accident regulation or the like. We deliver hydrogen to every company – this is not difficult with our storage solution.” His vision is that the iron nuggets in the near future “are only driven back and forth as bulk cargo in intercontinental transport.”
Compared to conventional 300-bar pressurized gas storage, this technology offers the advantage of significantly larger storage capacity. A volume of 1,000 liters can release 90 kg of hydrogen. The company recently received funding from the EU and the German state of Sachsen. Together with the technical university TU Bergakademie Freiberg, the storage technology is to be expanded promptly to 800 kg of hydrogen. The preparation of series production is being funded by Sachsen and the EU with funds from the program “FuE-Verbundprojektförderung 2021-2027” (R&D joint project support) with more than 4 million euros. The aim is to build Europe’s first H2 storage power station at the Freiberg location by early 2026.
Use as stationary H2 storage power station
The transport of releasable hydrogen in the form of iron nuggets is only one aspect of Ambartec’s technology – it can also serve as stationary H2 storage power stations. It thus offers an alternative to large electricity storage from lithium-ion batteries, the market of which is currently growing. The combination of the storage with a reversible high-temperature solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) should offer a lot of potential. If the power supply is high, the unit can provide SOEC hydrogen, which serves to load the storage. The water required for the SOEC is also obtained during this. When unloading with water vapor, the hydrogen is created, which is then used in the SOFC operation (solid oxide fuel cell) for electricity generation. Although a reversible SOFC is still very expensive today, Ambartec CEO Rudloff is certain that there is a noticeable cost advantage compared to battery storage for larger systems with more than one megawatt-hour power storage capacity.
Rudloff is relying especially on the German power station security law. This requires that long-term energy stores are provided for power plants so that 1 MW is available under full load for at least 72 hours. With the container solution, this is possible at any time, according to the company CEO. “If hopefully the first tenders come this year, we can offer something exciting,” he says.
The Sachsen company is currently targeting the public with their innovative technology, since the storage method is now ready for marketing: “You can already order. From the beginning of next year we can provide hydrogen in containers,” says Rudloff. From 2028, Ambartec plans to sell several hundred of these 20-foot standard containers every year –each of which holds ten vessels with iron nuggets. The CEO also reports: “Purem by Eberspächer is now accompanying us in gaining important findings for the later series production and effectively using the knowledge gained for product optimization – with the aim of producing the final product as low costly as possible.”
Ambartec is presenting its hydrogen storage technology at the Hydrogen + Fuel Cells Europe taking place as part of Hannover Messe (see exhibition preview on page 9).
Authors: Sven Geitmann, Jens Peter Meyer
by Hydrogeit | Mar 11, 2025 | Europe, Germany, Market, News
Chancellor Olaf Scholz took time for the opening of a new H2 gas station four days before the federal election. In Bremerhaven, together with representatives of HY.City.Bremerhaven as well as Bremen’s mayor Andreas Bovenschulte and SPD member of the Bundestag Uwe Schmidt, Scholz cut the ribbon, releasing the operating activities. The planning and design work had taken five years – the actual construction period “only” one year.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the opening, “We want and will remain a strong, successful industrial country. We will only succeed in the long run if we prioritize being CO2-neutral as part of our prosperity.”
The project Hy.City.Bremerhaven is part of the Hyways for Future market activation program for the transport sector establishment of green hydrogen in the metropolitan region Northwest Germany. As part of the HyLand program of the national innovation program for hydrogen and fuel cell technology, it was funded with a total of 5.5 million euros by the German ministry of digital and transport infrastructure.
