Building on the success of several pilot projects, DEUTZ has become one of the first engine manufacturers in the world to begin commercial production of a hydrogen engine. The background to this is a big-ticket order from China: DEUTZ is supplying 100 hydrogen-powered electricity generators, or H2 gensets, based on its TCG 7.8 H2 engine to the Chinese state innovation zone Zhongguancun Summit Enviro-Protection Co., Ltd (ZGC). The Zhongguancun technology hub in Beijing is sometimes called China’s Silicon Valley.

The collaboration in China will demonstrate the potential of hydrogen combustion technology, with the 100 hydrogen gensets to be deployed in the immediate vicinity of coking plants. The waste gases produced by these plants are currently all burned off. Hydrogen accounts for around a quarter of them, and going forward it will be separated out and used to generate electricity on site with the gensets supplied by DEUTZ – with no additional carbon emissions. This means that the hydrogen engines will still reduce emissions even if the hydrogen itself is not green. By using this ‘gray hydrogen’ byproduct of coking plants, each H2 genset is, even now, able to prevent up to 800 tonnes of CO₂ from being released into the atmosphere every year. And, of course, the gensets can be operated on a climate-neutral basis at a later stage, using green hydrogen.

The new engine uses conventional combustion technology but runs on hydrogen instead of fossil fuels. Burning hydrogen produces water (H₂O) rather than carbon dioxide (CO₂). The fact that the gensets can be scaled up or down flexibly depending on the needs at the location is another key advantage. Production of the hydrogen engines will commence at the Cologne-Porz site in 2024.