Porsche Latam – The trick of hydrogen with oil, Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies developed a technology that binds highly volatile hydrogen gas with an oil.
Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies GmbH developed a technology that binds highly volatile hydrogen gas with an oil. For this achievement, the company was nominated for the German Business Award 2021 (Deutscher Gründerpreis). Porsche Consulting will support Hydrogenious’s efforts to further expand its activities.
Green hydrogen is considered one of the most important components of the energy transition sought throughout the world. Generated by electrolysis without emitting greenhouse gases, from renewable energies such as wind or solar, it will play an essential transformative role in many areas of the economy, from the steel industry to glass production.
One of the challenges is how to obtain sufficient quantities of green hydrogen in an economically viable way. Therefore, exports from Spain, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, among other regions, play a fundamental role. However, storage and transportation of this highly volatile gas has proven difficult until now.
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As a solution, the company Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies, based in the Bavarian city of Erlangen, developed a process by which green hydrogen is bonded to an oil. ‘Stuffed in oil’, the gas can be stored and transported under ambient conditions. It is then released and the oil reused for the next load.
The road to success was long. Dr. Daniel Teichmann, a chemical engineer, founded Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies GmbH in 2013. The four capital letters of the company name stand for ‘organic liquid hydrogen carriers’.
Knowing that organic compounds can absorb and release hydrogen in chemical reactions, Teichmann came up with the idea of using them to store and transport the gas. He perfected this approach in the course of a research program at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU).
Since 2014, this southern German university has held a single-digit stake in the company. In exchange, he has transferred 15 patents to Hydrogenious.
The high storage density of the LOHC process allows it to transport five times more hydrogen than with compression processes, for example. Teichmann found that a benzyltoluene heat transfer oil is perfectly suitable for this purpose, and Hydrogenious has already patented the process.
Dr. Andreas Lehmann, Strategy Director of the company, highlights the possibilities to commercialize the technology:
We can use all the elements that already exist in the infrastructure of conventional fuels, for example, diesel, including fuel tanks, pumps and tank trucks.
In addition, the oil is highly stable and safe because it can be handled and stored under ambient conditions. It is not explosive, volatile or emits toxic corrosive vapors, as occurs with ammonia. The process is currently being tested in multiple test facilities.
The largest is planned at the CHEMPARK in Dormagen (Germany), with a planned storage capacity of five tons per day. “That means we have reached an industrial scale,” Lehmann said.
Those responsible for the Erlangen company are certain that not only the industrial sectors, but also transport “will benefit from hydrogen propulsion systems and thus from our LOHC application”.
Lehmann goes on to explain that LOHC enables an infrastructure safe for facilities such as petrol stations. The process could also soon be used at sea.
In July this year, the company, which already has 45 patents and employs 125 people, created a joint venture with the Scandinavian shipping company Johannes Østensjø dy AS Experts expect subsidiary Hydrogenious LOHC Maritime AS to develop and market an innovative zero-emission LOHC-based application for the maritime industry The first freighter to be equipped with the novel technology “developed in Erlangen”could set sail as early as 2024.
Investors trust the prospects of young techies. AP Ventures, Anglo American Platinum’s venture capital management firm, and the South African Public Investment Corporation were quick to join. They were followed by the oil terminal operator Vopak, the Winkelmann Group, the Mitsubishi corporation, the chemical group Covestro and the Hyundai Motor Company.
In the latest funding round, these six investors were joined by four others: Jera, Japan’s largest energy company, Temesek, the Singapore government’s equity holding company Chevron Oil Corporation, and venture investor Pavilion Capital. “That gives our growth plans a very solid financial and strategic foundation,” Lehmann said.
Hydrogenious’ innovative strength and pioneering technology were honored at this year’s German Business Awards (Deutscher Gründerpreis).
The jury, made up of representatives of the partners and sponsors of the DG; Among them, Stern magazine, Sparkasse savings and loan institutions, ZDF television channel and Porsche, praised the development of a revolutionary storage and transport technology that can facilitate the advancement of hydrogen as an energy carrier in the 21st century. Hydrogenious was nominated in the ‘For the Future’ category.
Like the other finalists, you will receive four weeks of individual and personalized attention from the management consultancy Porsche Consulting. “We want to work with consultants to refine our strategy for the coming years, when we move from development work to a commercial and service company,” said Lehmann.
“The ideas and experience of Porsche Consulting in the mobility sector will be useful, as well as the experience of its consultants in product introductions and services in the market.” Thanks for staying up to date with Hydrogen Central.
Michael Tribus, Principal Partner at Porsche Consulting, said:
Hydrogenious masters precisely the technology that can make hydrogen successful. We want to help the company become an economic success as well.
German Business Awards – The Finalists
Since 2002, the German Entrepreneurship Awards (Deutscher Gründerpreis) have recognized those who, despite the risks, have not shied away from turning ideas into business plans and transforming them into companies. In addition to Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies GmbH, there were five other nominees in the ‘Startup’ and ‘For the Future’ categories ahead of the final round of this year’s awards, the ceremony for which was held on September 14 in Berlin.
winners
Light and easy. Make laboratory tests in microgravity easier, faster and cheaper on parabolic flights or on the International Space Station (ISS).
Three aeronautical engineers, an industrial engineer and their companyYuri GmbH, located in Meckenbeuren, southern Germany, said their business model is the “democratization of weightlessness.” Yuri’s main products are currently miniature laboratories that are sent into space for pharmaceutical companies or research institutes.
Yuri’s future plans are to go from a service provider to a biotech company and produce biological material or whole organs in space.
Free and wild. the young company Wildling Shoes GmbH from Engelskirchen in western Germany wants to give the feet as much freedom as possible.
The use of Japanese washi fabric instead of leather is one reason designers Anna and Ran Yona’s ‘cool summer shoes’ are so comfortable they’re barely noticeable.
For the Yonas, the idea came from their children, whom they let run barefoot while living in Israel. Later, the children asked for shoes that would not weigh down their feet, a wish shared by a growing number of customers.
NOMINATED
Phishing prohibited. Based in Cologne, in western Germany, SoSafe GmbH uses a training platform to help companies and organizations turn their employees into ‘human firewalls’ in the fight against cybercrime. Some 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent every day , of which more than 600 million evade spam filters . Half of them are open.
The three founders of SoSafe and their team developed an e-learning platform with realistic simulations that make employees aware and thus help prevent errors by staying connected. Non-commercial users can try a free version at phish-test.de.
One application a day. Treating anxiety disorders digitally through a smartphone is what the Invirto application promises, sympathetic GmbH, based in Hamburg, in northern Germany. Developed by Julian Angern, a young neuroscientist, it puts virtual reality at the service of psychotherapy.
Invirto requires a prescription and is approved by insurance companies. According to Sympatient, the treatment is already fully reimbursed by all public insurance companies in Germany.
Your ID please. Confirming your identity online is now easier with the Selfie-Ident app from Nect GmbH, based in Hamburg. Users record videos of their faces and identity documents.
Artificial intelligence is used to quickly and easily verify images on mobile end devices. Many insurance companies, Deutsche Telekom, the automobile association ADAC and even the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency) already use this user-friendly process, for example, to quickly assess applications for unemployment benefits.
READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central
The trick of hydrogen with oil, [in Spanish] October 5, 2021
