Hy2Chem – Construction of a scaling platform for the synthesis of basic chemicals from green hydrogen

The aim of the project is to complement the infrastructure at Fraunhofer CBP and the Fraunhofer Hydrogen Lab Leuna (HLL), a development platform in collaboration with Fraunhofer IWES for utilizing novel renewable energy technologies for the synthesis of hydrogen and other chemical products at the Leuna site. This will expand the portfolio of available technologies for developing and scaling new processes for the sustainable conversion of green hydrogen and for investigating efficient uses of CO₂.

The core objective of the project is the construction of a multifunctional demonstration plant for the chemical conversion of green hydrogen. With the infrastructure then available, process development can be carried out holistically at one location and tested directly in an industrial environment: from applied research and testing for technical feasibility, including scaling up to miniplant scale at Fraunhofer CBP, to demonstration of the integrated process stages of CO₂ conditioning, electrolysis and chemical conversion to basic chemicals and fuels at HLL. The planned target products are initially methanol or liquid hydrocarbons, as these can be integrated directly into the material compound.

The initial project on the Hy2Chem platform is the e-CO2Met project, in which Fraunhofer, together with Sunfire and under the coordination of TotalEnergies, is developing a pilot process for the production of methanol from CO₂ and green hydrogen.