The European Union launched its Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs) in order to strengthen European value chains of strategic importance. The instrument is intended to encourage international partnerships and enable value chains to be mapped from the applied research and technology development stage through to first-time application on an industrial scale.
 
The Hy2Tech IPCEI focuses on promoting innovative ventures along the entire hydrogen value chain and is currently supporting the following projects in Austria:
> AVL List, Christof Systems (1 MW high-temperature electrolyser based on metal-supported cells (MSCs) and transition to series production)
> Plastic Omnium New Energies Wels (hydrogen fuel cell system for heavy-duty commercial vehicle applications as a product ready for series production plus the requisite production processes)
> Bosch (injection equipment for using alternative fuels such as hydrogen and methanol in large engines)
 
The second hydrogen IPCEI, Hy2Use, is all about decarbonising industry. Two Austrian companies are amongst the twenty-nine taking part: Borealis and VERBUND are developing a technique that uses green hydrogen to make fertiliser, melamine and technical nitrogen products in Austria. They will be building a 60 MW electrolysis plant in Linz for this purpose, which will also be able to provide services for the power grid. Austria’s involvement is being funded via Next Generation EU, Europe’s recovery fund.
www.bmk.gv.at/themen/innovation/internationales/ipcei/aktive_teilnahmen/h2
 
An overview of current European and international initiatives and committees relating to hydrogen can be found on the HyPA website:
www.hypa.at/politik/internationales

HyCentA – COMET-K1 Competence Centre for applied hydrogen research
HyCentA – an extra-university research institution at Graz University of Technology – has been researching and developing green hydrogen technologies since 2005; conducting projects on the production, distribution, storage and use of renewable hydrogen in cooperation with companies and scientific partners. HyCentA has been awarded a COMET centre with begin of 2023 under the FFG COMET funding programme. COMET Competence Centres engage in top-level applied research in areas of strategic importance to the Austrian economy and come up with solutions for the key challenges of tomorrow.
www.hycenta.at
COMET_Factsheet_HyCentA_DE_bf.pdf
 

„Hydrogen technologies and the use of renewable hydrogen as a renewable energy carrier are becoming increasingly important across the world, and Austria is well placed to benefit from this trend and contribute to the global hydrogen industry thanks to its renewable energy sources, research capacity and industrial expertise. We at HyCentA want to bring hydrogen technology on leaps and bounds, because we firmly believe that green hydrogen has to form part of the solution for a climate-neutral energy system. The COMET K1 Centre, which opened in 2023, allows us to research three hydrogen technologies that will be particularly relevant in the future: electrolysers, storage systems and fuel cells. We’re now also able to focus more on taking a holistic view of hydrogen across multiple fields – electricity, heating, transport and industry. In all, there are some 40 leading scientific partners and companies from Austria and further afield collaborating with HyCentA in the COMET programme. We see ourselves as the linchpin linking research and industry. It’s important for the latest scientific findings to find use in industrial applications.“
Alexander Trattner
CEO and Research Director of HyCentA