hyBit

The project hyBit opens the initiative for the establishment of a hydrogen hub in Bremen and in the larger context of an entire North German hydrogen economy. The project is intended to support the initial impulse for the transformation to a sustainable and climate-neutral Europe and at the same time also take into account the exchange with potential non-European hydrogen export countries such as the MENA region.

The following central research questions arise:

• How can climate neutrality be achieved through the targeted technical, economic, ecological, legal and social design of hydrogen hubs?
• What synergies and trade-offs result from the integration of regional hubs (micro level) into a supra-regional hydrogen economy (macro level)?
• How can the scarce resource hydrogen be used with the greatest possible effect in the transformation process?

Using Bremen as an example, the scientists will conduct concrete research on transformation paths for building a resilient and sustainable hydrogen economy, which should also be transferable to other hydrogen hubs. At the centre of the project is a transformation platform (project cluster 1), which forms the basis for a joint, cross-sector roadmap and monitoring process. Project clusters 2–4 deal with industrial transformation (relevant industrial applications such as the steel plant Bremen), the use of hydrogen in mobility and logistics (heavy goods transport, port logistics) and heat extraction for neighbourhoods and service centres in Bremen as coupled and integrated transformation processes.

The Wuppertal Institute coordinates the cluster 5 "Conception of a supra-regional hydrogen economy as socio-technical transformation of industrial hubs". The scientists analyse the development lines of a future hydrogen-based energy and economic system and in particular the interactions between the development of individual hydrogen hubs and the overall system. The analyses of conceivable transformation paths of this co-evolution are carried out both from a dynamic energy system analysis perspective and from an innovation, structural change and acceptance perspective. Here, the scientists of the Wuppertal Institute contribute their interdisciplinary research approach in the fields of social innovations and structural change, modelling and scenario development, transformation of basic industries, transformation research and sustainability assessment.