In cooperation with Campus Schwarzwald and the Fraunhofer IPA, the Institute of Industrial Manufacturing and Management (IFF) and the Institute for Energy Efficiency in Production (EEP) at the University of Stuttgart participated in the RegioWIN 2030 competition with their proposed project “H2BlackForest”, the research center for a biointelligent hydrogen circular economy - and won.
H2BlackForest received the prize from three ministries and is one of the three flagship projects of the Northern Black Forest region. The winners are now looking for other industrial partners, municipalities, and public utility companies that would like to participate in the funding of the project.
“The state will use about EUR 80 million from the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE) for RegioWIN projects and supplement the amount with state funding,” promised the Baden-Wuerttemberg Minister for Economic Affairs, Hoffmeister-Kraut, during the announcement of the awarded flagship projects. A significant portion of the funding will benefit Campus Schwarzwald, the IFF, the EEP, and the IPA, whose project for a biointelligent hydrogen cycle is budgeted at a total of EUR 12 million.
The project is open to other partners
The project is to be opened to other partners from industry, energy supply, and municipal administration. “We plan to add just under EUR five million to the EU and state budget,” says Stefan Bogenrieder, Managing Director of Campus Schwarzwald. “We are convinced that this will take the region a major step towards innovation, climate neutrality, and sustainability.”
H2BlackForest – The research center for a biointelligent hydrogen circular economy
H2BlackForest comprises four subprojects, which will explore and enable green hydrogen production and its biointelligent circular economy in the Northern Black Forest region. As the Director of the Fraunhofer IPA and Head of the EEP at the University of Stuttgart, Alexander Sauer played a key role in the design of the project. “In the FastCell subproject, we make customized fuel cell stack production suitable for mass production through high-speed assembly. ReduCO2 accelerates the CO2 neutrality of production in the Northern Black Forest region using sustainable hydrogen-based technologies. In WisFo, we create economic synergies through the exchange with SMEs, and in BioRoh, we investigate in cooperation with the Fraunhofer IGB how biotic raw materials such as wood can be used as a basis for sustainable and green hydrogen production.”
The original initiator of the proposal, IPA head Thomas Bauernhansl, who is also the head of the Institute of Industrial Manufacturing and Management at the University of Stuttgart, focuses attention on the integration of highly innovative technologies: “Automatization and Artificial Intelligence play a key role in the project. Therefore, we are also interested in collaborations with companies from these industries.”
Businesses, public utility companies, and municipalities wishing to participate in the winning project “H2BlackForest” are kindly asked to send an email to Stefan.Bogenrieder@campus-schwarzwald.de as soon as possible.