Competence centre H2Herten

Application centre H2Herten

Since the first coal mining activities started here about 135 years ago, the "Ewald" area in Herten has been focused on future orientated generation of energy.
Today renewable hydrogen production is the central point of planned activities, since the Blue Tower (hydrogen from biomass) and the water electrolysis with wind electricity are currently under construction here.
The other central point within the H2 Competence Centre H2Herten is the H2 Application Centre, Europe’s only communal technology centre for H2 and FC companies.
Herten is also home to the EU demonstration project for small fuel cell vehicles HYCHAIN MINI-TRANS.

The Blue Tower

The Blue Tower is a clean and climate-friendly technology for producing electricity and hydrogen. Unlike conventional biomass technologies, Blue Tower can use regenerative feedstock. Blue Tower is an example for multi-feedstock technology. In other words, this technology enables the use of very different raw materials, such as roadside green cuttings, chicken manure and olive stones. Blue Gas can be used to produce electricity and hydrogen, for example.
The efficiency of the Blue Tower technology was proven by a pilot installation run from 2001 until 2006. A demonstration plant is now being constructed nearby the Herten Hydrogen Competence Centre which is supposed to prove the technology's readiness for the market.