HZwo:CONNECT held on the premises of Fraunhofer IWU in Chemnitz, Germany on June 1 has been a success
In the past years, the hydrogen-based technologies made a notable progress. Along with Japan and the USA, Germany works intensively on the mass production of fuel cells, which is believed to be the key stepping stone to their worldwide use. Mass production should drive down the production costs, making fuel cells competitive to the internal combustion engine.
The main objective of the event was to bring together all the links necessary to form and solidify the supply and value chains, spanning from the research organisations over the suppliers all the way to the end users. Under the umbrella of the HZwo initiative, several projects address various aspects of fuel cells, e.g. the metallic bipolar plates or the fuel cell system.
The relevance of this initiative is underscored by the speech of the state minister for economics affairs, labour and transportation, and the deputy prime minister of the free state Saxony, Martin Dulig. According to him: “The fuel cells could be a key technology for the mobility of tomorrow. Then can we offer attractive positions to highly qualified people here in Autoland Saxony. The future belongs to smart mobility, but not just as a support the batteries.”
Prof. Thomas von Unwerth, the head of the Department of Alternative Powertrains and the Institute of the Automotive Research at the TU Chemnitz is confident that “Hydrogen-based fuel cell drives will amass increasing importance due to the electrification of the automotive industry, especially where long-range driving is concerned.”
The autoland Saxony can make the transition to the electro mobility only when the industry and research develop together the means to make and promote the hydrogen-fuel-cell based technology. On the global market, especially in countries facing the ever more important ecological challenges, the autoland Saxony will be prepared.
More information: https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/hzwo
Poster Fit4Amanda
Mr. Rathke (TU Chemnitz) describing a fuel cell system /Foto: Jiří Hrdlička
Prof. Dr. Gerd Strohmeier; Martin Dulig; Prof. Dr. Welf-Guntram Drossel; Prof. Dr. Thomas von Unwerth /Foto: Rico Welzel
