The climate, energy and resource strategy program “Tirol 2050 energy-autonomous” involves a massive restructuring of the energy system to optimize electricity applications. FEN Research GmbH has set up the EWest Research Labortory at the Green Energy Center Europe in Innsbruck for the optimization of “Power on Demand” processes for the restructuring of the energy system. 

The HyWest research laboratory at the Green Energy Center Europe in Innsbruck, Austria, stands for multi- and interdisciplinary hydrogen logistics, system and process research with international research teams for the development of a green hydrogen economy in Europe.

The TRIĒRĒS project is supporting the main priority of the European Commission for scaling up hydrogen ecosystems across Europe through emerging strategic value chains. The TRIĒRĒS Valley is nucleated around the Motor Oil Hellas (MOH) Refinery in Agioi Theodoroi, Greece, which is destined to become the Flagship Hydrogen Valley in the South-eastern Mediterranean geography.

This European project will demonstrate the production of hydrogen (H₂) by splitting water through the Hybrid Sulphur cycle (HyS) via concentrated solar technologies (CST) with an attractive efficiency and cost. HySelect will introduce, develop and operate a complete H₂ production chain under industrially relevant conditions.

The Hydrogen Centres of Vocational Excellence (H2CoVE) project aims to equip the European workforce with the right and necessary high-quality vocational skills for industries in the emerging value chains for a hydrogen economy. Five regions from Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Netherlands, Norway and Ukraine will pool their knowledge and expertise to build local ecosystems for skills.

HyQuality is a collaborative research project between FEN Research and ÖVGW, ongoing since February 2023, aiming to develop an affordable monitoring process for the quality assurance of electrolytic hydrogen. A tolerable error probability for the release of hydrogen with unacceptable quality is to be determined.

The aim of the HyBus project is to accompany the implementation of the first three 700 bar hydrogen buses at Wiener Linien (urban operating case), Graz Linien (regional operating case) and Zillertaler Verkehrsbetriebe (alpine operating case) with a long-term study in real operation. The aim is to research, among other things, the system and logistics contexts for the integration of the individual operating cases into a green, regionally autonomous hydrogen economy

The Austrian R&D flagship project “WIVA P&G HyWest” was developed between 2018 and 2022 at the HyWest research center at the Green Energy Center Europe in Innsbruck with the aim of “building a green regional hydrogen economy” and was finally brought to Tyrol on the basis of an international jury decision in the research competition process. The project will explore the processes involved in the cross-sector production, storage and use of green hydrogen.

The HySnowGroomer project aims to develop a multifunctional hydrogen snow groomer including a refueling system and emergency power supply function for clean and safe alpine winter tourism. With the support of the national climate and energy fund, a snow groomer with a fuel cell electric powertrain was developed between 2019 and 2021 and a mobile hydrogen filling station (mobileHRS) was developed, built and brought to market.

In this project, a multidisciplinary team is working on the latest drone technology powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The Hydrogen Drone project is working on the next generation of unmanned aerial vehicles that are being developed with special operations, efficiency and sustainability in mind. 

FEN Sustain Systems GmbH participated in the commercial vehicle research project LEEFF (Low Emission Electric Freight Fleets) as a business partner together with the partners of ARGE Mobilität (ENOMICS GmbH, Energie Ingenieure Consultig GmbH). The project, supported by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund, focussed on the low-emission use of electric freight fleets. The aim was to develop, demonstrate and validate an integrative overall solution that enables electrified commercial vehicles to be economically and reliably integrated into vehicle fleets.

The HyTruck project aims at demonstrating a zero-emission fuel cell-based solution for the commercial vehicle market within the energy model region WIVA P&G. Based on the above-mentioned state-of-the-art of fuel cell trucks, HyTruck provides a significant technology advancement as current barriers such as power output, lifetime, energy and thermal management as well as cost are overcome with novel and innovative solutions.

The aim of the EU project “Demo4Grid” is to build a PAE electrolysis plant (Pressurized Alkaline Electrolyser) to research and demonstrate power grid balancing services under real operating and market conditions while simultaneously producing green hydrogen to make industrial processes more environmentally friendly.

Hyundai’s ‘Friendly User Hydrogen Family’ has been established with the installation of the world’s first series of hydrogen cars – the Hyundai ix35 FCEV – in Europe, the opening of the Green Energy Center Europe in Innsbruck in 2016 and the launch of the world’s second series of hydrogen cars – the Hyundai Nexo FCEV – in 2018.

As part of the Codex partnership, information on hydrogen applications in mobility has been provided to so-called friendly users since the installation of the first hydrogen cars in Europe. Interested parties are taken on tours of the pioneering hydrogen vehicles (Hyundai ix35 FCEV and Hyundai Nexo FCEV) and the current hydrogen facilities in Central Europe.

HyFIVE is an ambitious European project including 15 partners who will deploy 110 fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) from the five global automotive companies who are leading in their commercialisation (BMW, Daimler, HONDA, Hyundai and Toyota).

Refuelling stations configured in viable networks will be developed in three distinct clusters by deploying 6 new stations linked with 12 existing stations supplied by Air Products, Copenhagen Hydrogen Network, Danish Hydrogen Fuel, ITM Power, Linde and OMV.