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From Frank-Uwe Michel
The financing was already clear. Now all the bureaucratic hurdles have been cleared: The city of Zittau has granted the outstanding building permit. This means that a test facility commissioned by Fraunhofer with the unwieldy name La-SeVe - which stands for "Laboratory facility for sector-coupled utilization of PEM electrolysis products" - will be built in the next few weeks. Behind it is a container that houses an electrolyzer that produces hydrogen from green electricity. According to Clemens Schneider, who heads the Zittau site of the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Energy (IEG), it will be set up on the grounds of the municipal utility company.
The system is currently being assembled and is due to be delivered and connected at the end of 2024. The test complex also includes a new transformer station from which electricity will be drawn. An existing hall on the Stadtwerke site will also house the heat pump, buffer storage tank, pumps and control technology, which will then be connected to the electrolyser via a water circuit. The project will cost 2.7 million euros. The funds are being provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which is investing a total of around 19 million euros in a so-called hydrogen lead project - of which the Zittau plant is a part.
The research at the test facility is intended to show how the by-products of hydrogen production, such as oxygen and heat, can be optimally utilized - and, above all, what potential applications are available. Clemens Schneider is assuming a broad spectrum. For example, a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius is achieved during electrolysis. With the help of a heat pump, this value should be raised to 90 to 95 degrees and then benefit the district heating network operated by Zittauer Stadtwerke. With the appropriate purity, the resulting oxygen is also in demand in the economy.
"We naturally want to find more interfaces," says the head of the Fraunhofer IEG site in Zittau, setting the direction. The focus is also on technologies for the efficient conversion of various forms of energy. Ultimately, the aim is to gather experience in order to operate electrolysers in future "so that the grids are not overloaded, but also so that no energy is wasted." Completion of the test facility is planned for early 2025.
Fraunhofer came to Zittau with its Institute for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Energy in June 2023 and opened a branch office in the Mandauhöfe with an initial twelve employees. Even back then, theoretical and practical investigations into electrolysis systems and their by-products were among the research projects to be tackled. This project is now being implemented.
