Hannover Messe, a leading platform for hydrogen and fuel cells

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Hannover Messe, a leading platform for hydrogen and fuel cells

Hannover Messe, a leading platform for hydrogen and fuel cells

Industry News
Mar 22,23

At the upcoming trade fair, Hannover Messe, running from 17 to 21 April, around 500 companies will be presenting their solutions for hydrogen production, transport, storage and consumption. By 2030, the EU Commission wants to install electrolyzers with a capacity of at least 40 gigawatts to produce 10 million tons of green hydrogen in a phased-in process.

Hannover Messe, a leading platform for hydrogen and fuel cells

The hydrogen economy is international, leading to a plethora of new, innovative companies worldwide. The Harz region of southern Germany has experienced a boom as a result of the technology. The exhibitor Maximator Hydrogen, a manufacturer of hydrogen filling stations, has been growing for years and is aiming for sales of 50 million euros – in its fifth business year. Construction is now taking place, and production space is constantly growing. The company's backlog of orders now totals more than 100 million euros.

Several small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Europe are profiting from the hydrogen economy and are consistently creating innovative methods for producing, storing, transporting, and refilling hydrogen. Approximately 300 exhibitors, including well-known companies such as Bosch, Iberdrola, Schaeffler, Siemens, Linde, and Emerson, will be displaying their products at the Hydrogen + Fuel Cells EUROPE, a special display at Hannover Messe.

The hydrogen industry thinks internationally and will be showcased primarily in Hall 13, where decision-makers from all over the world will be discussing new technologies and applications for hydrogen and fuel cells in an area covering approximately 8,000 square metres of display space. Many exhibitors hail from countries other than Germany and Europe, including China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Canada.

Norway is a significant partner for German and European future goals, and it is well-represented at the event. Equinor and RWE, a German company, recently signed an agreement to manufacture hydrogen in Norway and transport it through the pipeline to Germany as well as convert gas-fired power plants to hydrogen and jointly develop offshore wind farms. They will also work together to create offshore wind farms. Statkraft and Germany's HH2E presented their agreements with the Norway-based NEL company to purchase electrolyzers for hydrogen factories in several European countries.

With a rising tendency, Europe now generates and uses over 80 million tonnes of hydrogen annually. The main obstacle is to “greenify” present and upcoming hydrogen usage. The EU Commission intends to switch from grey hydrogen to green hydrogen by 2030 as grey hydrogen is derived from fossil fuels. With only seven more years to go, it will take numerous additional electrolyzers to attain the goal.

According to the Fraunhofer Institute, the most efficient technology for producing hydrogen comes from Belgium, with its ZIRFON separators for alkaline electrolysis (AEL) being used by manufacturers of electrolyzers and owners of hydrogen production projects across the globe due to their durability and sustained high productivity, according to the developers.

But it’s not just Europe that is betting on hydrogen. Many companies are also investing in China. Refire, for example, says it is already operating more than 4,000 fuel cell trucks. On the first day of the exhibition, Audrey Ma, Vice President at Refire, will discuss “Heavy Duty Trucks – is Hydrogen the future?” with representatives of European industry, including Jens Fleckenstein of Daimler Truck and Yves Dumoulin of the FORVIA Group.

Hydrogen + Fuel Cells EUROPE is organizing two forums running in tandem with the exhibition, i.e. the Public Forum and the Technical Forum.