Hydrogen mobility can make an important contribution to the energy transition – especially if the hydrogen used is produced carbon-free, eg by electrolysis using renewable energy sources. Due to the long range and short refueling time of fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen is of particular interest for large mobility applications such as trucks or large fleets of high capacity light trucks.

The widespread expansion of efficient hydrogen filling stations is still one of the challenges in the transition from fossil fuels to zero-emission hydrogen as the fuel of the future. Currently, EIFER (European Institute For Energy Research) and Steinbeis 2i GmbH are working with European partners on new innovative concepts that can contribute to the cost reduction of hydrogen refueling stations and increase the flow volume.

The predecessor project COSMHYC (GA 736122) has been working on an improved hydrogen compression solution to increase the efficiency of hydrogen filling stations since January 2017 and has already made significant progress. COSMHYC XL (GA 826182) is now based on this innovative concept and launched in January 2019. Five project partners are developing a novel compression concept for high-performance hydrogen filling stations, based on two existing compression methods: metal hydride compression and membrane compression. The combination of these two methods enables the capacity, flow volume and reliability of the hydrogen refueling stations to be increased, so that they can also be used in the heavy-duty sector.

COSMHYC XL has a total budget of 2.7 million euros and will run until December 2021. The funding comes from the European Commission under Horizon 2020 and the public-private partnership Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (FCH 2 JU). COSMHYC XL is coordinated by the European Institute for Energy Research (EIFER) in Karlsruhe in cooperation with four other partners from France, Denmark and Germany: MAHYTEC SARL (FR), NEL HYDROGEN AS (DK), Ludwig-Boelkow-Systemtechnik GmbH (DE ), Steinbeis 2i GmbH (DE).

Steinbeis 2i GmbH supports EIFER in project management and is responsible for communication, dissemination and exploitation of the project results.