The hydrogen of the future up close: National Hydrogen Council visits Salzgitter

Joint press release from Wasserstoff Campus Salzgitter e.V., City of Salzgitter, Salzgitter AG, Fraunhofer IST, TU Braunschweig and Everllence SE

On 27 November, a delegation from the National Hydrogen Council visited the Hydrogen Campus Salzgitter. The National Hydrogen Council, consisting of 23 high-ranking experts from business, science and civil society, was appointed by the German government in June 2020 and acts as an independent, non-partisan advisory body. The visit provided an opportunity to present the campus’s activities, expertise and innovative strength at the national level.

After an official welcome by Michael Gensicke, member of the board of Hydrogen Campus Salzgitter e. V., and Jan Erik Bohling, head of the economic department, representing the city of Salzgitter, the guests were given an overview of the activities, research work and latest developments in hydrogen technology at the Hydrogen Campus Salzgitter. As a flagship project for the region, the campus is an important building block for the energy transition in Germany.

The delegation was able to gain an impression of modern production and testing infrastructures. They visited the automated stack (dis)assembly line of the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, which is used in various research projects at TU Braunschweig and Fraunhofer IST. The facility is mainly used to research innovative production methods for PEM fuel cell stacks and PEM electrolysis stacks. It enables flexible disassembly of the stacks and supports the testing of industrial automation processes to increase efficiency.

Robert Bosch Elektronik GmbH demonstrated the technologies and strategic approaches that support factory transformation as part of the Hydrogen Campus. By 2024, around 30 percent of the company’s own electricity requirements were already being covered by the 40,000-square-metre photovoltaic system, which had been fully expanded since mid-2023. In addition, the site uses regional district heating from the Salzgitter AG steelworks and relies on various energy storage solutions such as cold storage and battery storage from recycled electric vehicle batteries.

Finally, participants at Everllence and Quest One experienced a VR application for electrolysis technology that interactively illustrated how electrolysis systems work and brought innovative approaches to hydrogen production to life.

The visit underscored the central role of the Hydrogen Campus Salzgitter as a location for research, development and industrial application of hydrogen technologies and promoted exchange between science, business, politics and civil society.