Federal government supports Sunfire with 60 million euros

Until now, the production of hydrogen has only been possible on a small scale and is very energy-intensive. The Dresden-based start-up Sunfire wants to change that and is receiving funding from the German government to do so.

The German government has invested 60 million euros in the hydrogen technology of Sunfire and its partners from industry and research. 33 million euros of this will go toward preparing for series production of the high-temperature electrolyzers (SOEC). The other 27 million euros are for the mass production of pressurized alkaline electrolysers, another process for hydrogen production.

The high-temperature electrolysers use waste heat from industrial processes to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. According to the company, the technology developed by Sunfire requires 30 percent less electricity to produce one kilogram of hydrogen in comparison. "Among other things, we will make the individual components more durable and simplify the design of the systems," announces Sunfire chief technology officer Christian von Olshausen. "With our optimized high-temperature electrolysers, industry will be able to produce green hydrogen even more efficiently - and consequently more cost-effectively - in the future. To also reduce the purchase price, we are also developing process chains for industrial series production." In manufacturing, Sunfire is working with 15 partners. These include companies such as Xenon Automatisierungstechnik and research institutions such as the European Institute for Energy Research.

The pressurized alkaline electrolysers have been in production for some time, but have not yet been mass-produced. This is now set to change as well with funding from the German government. "We are setting up manufacturing processes and finalizing the new design of our pressurized alkali electrolysers," says von Olshausen. "Compared to the previous models, we will improve them once again in terms of energy consumption and durability."

The funding from the German government is part of the "Hydrogen Republic of Germany" project, which aims to advance the production of green hydrogen. By 2030, the output of electrolysers in the European Union is to increase from 0.2 to 40 gigawatts.