BioH2Region - BA0100157 - BioH2Region - "Kompetenzregion für erneuerbaren Wasserstoff und Grüne Gase"

Regional production and storage of renewable energy is a dominant theme throughout the Interreg program area. The necessary balancing of the fluctuating energy supply from wind and sun inevitably leads to the fact that regional biogenic resources must also be integrated into this process. The energy produced in this way can be permanently stored as "green" gas (H2, CH4) and used independently of fluctuation processes for all energy- and material-driven processes.
The BioH2Region project collects, creates and bundles the knowledge base for production and use of green gases by investigating regional resources, transformation processes, quality criteria and use scenarios and preparing them for the players in the region (politics, municipalities, companies, agriculture). The cross-border knowledge platform links all stakeholders with the research centers on both sides of the border and is open for further partners and implementation projects.
The research centers TZE and FH Wels contribute their respective core competences to the platform in a proven way and use existing structures for dissemination in the best possible way. The project partners Centouris, Business Upper Austria and Innovation Salzburg are the selected partners for close integration of regional belongings of the SMEs as the main target group as well as to disseminate knowledge and research results of the universities.
On both sides of the border, enormous efforts are being made to meet the challenges of the energy transition. In Upper Austria, several projects in the field of hydrogen have already been initiated, and the project partner FH Upper Austria in Wels will invest millions in technical infrastructure in the coming years.
In Lower Bavaria, the transformation of the energy system is being researched and worked on at full speed. As a so-called HyExpert region with a focus on mobility, the district of Passau is currently working on a potential study for the transformation of transportation. Companies from the region are forming consortia to establish hydrogen as a fuel for heavy-duty transport and to establish both suitable vehicles and the necessary infrastructure for the region in a timely manner (Next Mobility Consortium: Shell AG, Fa. Maier & Korduletsch, Fa. Mercedes-Paul).
The focus is on energy generation and storage from renewable sources. Water splitting by means of electrolysis is favored as the technology for converting renewable energies that cannot be used in the power grid at the time of generation. This will undoubtedly be able to provide a large proportion of the hydrogen needed in the future and will have to do so.
However, other aspects such as supplying the chemical industry with carbon-containing gases for material use must also be taken into account. To this end, the establishment of a sustainable cycle for the supply and use of this carbon is essential. Biogenic resources (in particular residual and waste materials) offer an excellent starting point as a carbon source, with suitable processes to serve as a source of biogenic hydrogen as well as a building block for the material integration of renewable energy sources.
With the BioH2Region project, a joint cross-border competence center for biogenic hydrogen, green gases, material and energetic biomass utilization, conversion and long-term storage is being created.

Technologically, the focus at the TZE is on expanding research capacities for the development of conversion technologies for the provision of green gases. Since 2018, the TZE