Bosch has entered the hydrogen age. At its Stuttgart-Feuerbach location, the technology and service provider has started series production of its fuel cell drive system. US-based Nikola Corporation will be the pilot customer with its Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric truck, whose entry into the North American market is planned for thethird quarter of 2023.
Thus, until 2030 Bosch expects to generate sales of about 5,000 million euros with hydrogen technology. Bosch also relies on a global manufacturing network and the competence of its German sites for its solutions for the hydrogen economy. For example, the Bosch plant in Bamberg (Germany) will supply the Feuerbach factory with the fuel cell module. Other major system components, such as the electric air compressor and recirculation fan, come from their plant in Homburg, Germany.
And the production of the fuel cell propulsion system will not only start in Feuerbach, but also in Chongqing (China) as the necessary components will come from the Wuxi plant. In addition, Bosch also has plans to manufacture battery modules for mobile applications at its US plant in Anderson, South Carolina. Worldwide, the company projects that by 2030, one in five new trucks weighing six tons or more will have a fuel cell drive system.
Bosch is very clear about it. The company strongly advocates the establishment of a hydrogen economy and is intensifying its investments in this field. Between 2021 and 2026, Bosch will have invested a total of almost 2.5 billion euros in the development and manufacture of its H2 technologies, one billion euros more than what was foreseen in the investment plan from 2021 to 2024. Business opportunities for Bosch are huge, as is the effect on jobs. Bosch already employs more than 3,000 people in the field of hydrogen, more than half of them in Europe. Most open positions can be filled internally, especially with people who have previously worked in the propulsion business.
In any case, Bosch is ready and is applying its automotive experience like no other company to the hydrogen economy. For this reason, the company is also sued as far as the production of H2 is concerned. In early 2023, Bosch began building prototypes for proton exchange membrane electrolysis, the reverse energy conversion method used in mobile fuel cells. Starting in the fall, the company wants to make 1.25-megawatt prototypes available for pilot applications, and is on track to start series production in 2025. What’s more, the H2’s motor launch is planned for 2024. Bosch has already four orders for production projects in all major economic regions and expects six-figure volumes by 2030. In this field, too, Bosch is dynamically driving the hydrogen economy.
PEM stack
The PEM fuel cell is the heart of the mobile fuel cell system. PEM stands for proton exchange membrane. The fuel cell for mobile applications is made up of many individual fuel cells. Depending on the power required, there may be several hundred. In these batteries, hydrogen reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water. The membrane of a fuel cell prevents electricity from flowing between the anode and the cathode.
At the same time, it also prevents hydrogen from passing into oxygen. The membrane is proton-conducting and allows hydrogen ions to pass through. One of the technologies used in the manufacture of the bipolar plates is high-speed laser welding, a process that only exists at Bosch. It is used to make 1,200 meters of welds in each pile hydrogen-tight. And by the end of 2022, the batteries were already ready for series production. Other manufacturing sites are envisioned, for example, in the United States.
Throughout their useful life, fuel cells undergo a process of wear: the platinum particles and carbon supports oxidize and degrade; the platinum particles grow and the catalyst layers become thinner. To solve this problem, Bosch researchers have developed a special coating that can mitigate these processes.
In addition, systemic measures enable an operating strategy that avoids aging-relevant loads, such as high cell voltages, and will help to further extend the lifetime of PEM fuel cells up to 30,000 operating hours in the future. Furthermore, some effects of aging can be reversed: in these cases, Bosch researchers have developed restoration processes.
hydrogen engine
To power vehicles, hydrogen can be used not only in fuel cells, but also in hydrogen engines. These engines are especially suitable for heavy-duty vehicles that drive for long periods with particularly heavy loads, such as long-distance freight transport and, above all, agricultural and construction machinery. Today’s available engines and drives are a good basis for this, as many of the components of existing drive systems can be transferred to the backbone of the fuel, air supply and exhaust systems.
Bosch is developing two systems for hydrogen engines: port hydrogen injection and direct injection. The direct injection injector must work without the lubrication of liquid fuel and open and close reliably approximately one billion times over the life of a truck. Other than water, the only relevant waste product emitted by a hydrogen engine is nitrogen oxide. Using proven exhaust gas treatment systems, it has no appreciable effect on air quality. The first production vehicles equipped with these engines are expected to appear on the roads in 2024.
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