GELSENKIRCHEN. Medium-sized enterprises and researchers from Gelsenkirchen are working hand in hand for the cooperation project „Power 2 Metal“.

Hydrogen will play an increasingly important role not only in the automotive industry in future – the element is now also considered a forward-looking all-rounder in general industry because it has two decisive advantages: hydrogen is naturally available in vast quantities, being as it is
bound in water. And when using hydrogen – for energy generation, for instance – no climate-damaging CO₂ is produced.

„We want to take advantage of these positive properties,“ explains Lars Baumgürtel, Managing Director of the Gelsenkirchen-based company Voigt & Schweitzer, which, through its subsidiary ZINQ Technologie, ensures that steel is protected against rusting. „To finish the steel with a zinc coating, however, it has to be immersed in large vats of liquid zinc - and these vats must be permanently heated to keep the material liquid. That costs a lot of energy,“ Baumgürtel points out. Up to now, his company has relied on natural gas for this. But that produces CO₂.

„Because we want to work as environmentally friendly as possible, I therefore looked into alternatives,“ says the man from Gelsenkirchen, whose research led to a surprising result: „The solutions we were looking for across Europe can be found right here on our doorstep.“

Energy can easily be stored

This is how Baumgürtel came across the research series of the Westphalian Institute of Energy at the local university: „Using what is known as an electrolyser, we break water down into its basic components of hydrogen and oxygen. The special thing about this is that we do this in the laboratory using a high-pressure process, meaning that we already produce the two product gases at high storage pressure in the end. This makes them easier to store and use,“ explains Professor Michael Brodmann, Director of the Westphalian Institute of Energy.

In cooperation with Küppers Solutions, a Gelsenkirchen-based company specialising in combustion technology for industry and commerce that can feed research results directly into local plant engineering, the idea for a new plant technology was born. And this, in turn, is to be used at ZINQ in the future. „The individual components of the plant would be immediately available, but putting them together correctly in this combination will still require some research work. The use of mixed gas is a real challenge in plant engineering – because here, natural gas and hydrogen are initially to be used together and the proportion of hydrogen is to be increased gradually until it reaches 100 percent,“ points out Jan te Kaat, the Managing Director of Küppers Solutions.

New technology aims to safeguard jobs

„The Gelsenkirchen-based team have named their collaborative project “Power 2 Metal„, which they presented on Thursday to Oliver Wittke (CDU), State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Energy, on the campus of the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences in Buer. „He was given the opportunity to view the prototypes of the new system right there in the on-site laboratory and was clearly impressed – not only by the groundbreaking technology, but also by the innovative spirit of the partners involved. “For me, this project is a prime example of structural change in this region, where the close integration of small and medium-sized enterprises and research is giving rise to something new. There is also great potential here to secure jobs in the local area. Furthermore, this development makes an important contribution to the energy transition. After all, if the phase-out of nuclear power and coal is to be implemented in the near future, we will need suitable alternatives,„ emphasised Oliver Wittke, pledging his full support for the “Power 2 Metal” project.

Grant application will be submitted shortly

Shortly, the project partners intend to submit a funding application to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs. „Normally, it happens the exact other way around – first there are funds, then cooperation partners are sought for implementation. We are delighted that it worked completely differently here,“ said Professor Bernd Kriegesmann, President of the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, expressing his pleasure.

InformationThe fuels for the new plant technology are supplied by Gelsenwasser AG, which is also involved in „Power 2 Metal“.

 „In ZINQ we have a customer that genuinely challenges us in a very innovative way. And it is really rare to see such an energy-efficiency programme implemented at record speed, raves Henning R. Deters, CEO of Gelsenwasser AG.