As part of the implementation phase of Work Packages 4 and 5 (WP4 and WP5), Dr. Klaus Taube, Deputy Director of the Institute of Hydrogen Technology at Hereon (https://www.hereon.de/institutes/hydrogen_technology/index.php.en) was seconded to the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, Cape Town, from April 5th, 2023, to May 5th, 2023.
During the secondment, Dr. Taube in his role as managerial staff discussed with the team at UWC and at TF Design about the current and future challenges of integration of hydrogen technology as a whole into our energy supply system – a topic of high sensitivity and concerning both, fighting climate change by moving away from a fossil fuel based energy system to one based on renewable energy generation and using hydrogen as an energy carrier, as well as securing energy supply at reasonable cost to all members of the society and industry and thus contributing to the wellbeing and positive industrial development of societies – topics of high relevance for Europe as well as South Africa and all countries in the world, but especially for economically disadvantaged countries in the 3rd world.
As part of his secondment, he established contacts between TF Design and the German HyTRA project (https://www.hytra.tech/) intending to set up a hydrogen based energy system in the region of Cape Town. Furthermore, he established a B2B contact between partner TF Design and GKN Hydrogen (https://www.gknhydrogen.com/), Germany. Both companies are active in the field of energy systems based on hydrogen and metal hydride as the storage medium and are intending to explore potential synergies.
Dr. Taube brought with him significant new insights into the important role of a secure energy supply especially in the Sub-Sahara region back to Germany, guiding future developments at Hereon of integration of hydrogen energy systems as well as coupling of the electricity, heat and transport sectors, and the important role, metal hydrides can play as medium for storage as well as compression of hydrogen as well as taking advantage of off-heat of the hydrogenation process as well as from heat sources like electrolysers and fuel cells for obtaining and optimal, energy efficient integration of all parts of the systems.
