“Here in Stuttgart-Feuerbach, in the plant whose history goes back further than any other Bosch plant, the hydrogen future is about to happen,” said Dr. Stefan Hartung, the chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, at the Bosch Tech Day 2023. “Bosch knows its way around hydrogen, and Bosch is growing with hydrogen.” The company operates along the entire hydrogen value chain, developing technology for its production and application. By 2030, Bosch plans to generate sales of roughly €5 billion with hydrogen technology.
In its solutions for the hydrogen economy, Bosch is relying on a global manufacturing network and the prowess of its German locations. For example, the Bosch plant in Bamberg, Germany, will supply the Feuerbach factory with the fuel cell stack. And important system components such as the electric air compressor and the recirculation blower come from the Bosch plant in Homburg, Germany.
“Bosch is one of the very few companies that are capable of mass producing technology as complex as fuel-cell stacks. We don’t just have the required systems expertise, but also the capability of quickly scaling up new developments to mass production,” said Markus Heyn, member of the Bosch board of management and chairman of Bosch Mobility.
Production of the fuel cell power module is not only starting in Feuerbach, but also in Chongqing, China. The components it requires will come from the Wuxi plant. “Bosch is the first company to produce these systems in both China and Germany,” Hartung said. In addition, Bosch is also planning to manufacture stacks for mobile applications in its U.S. plant in Anderson, South Carolina. Worldwide, the company expects that, by 2030, one in five new trucks weighing six tons or more will feature a fuel cell powertrain.
Between 2021 and 2026, Bosch will have invested a total of nearly €2.5 billion in the development and manufacturing of its H2 technologies. That is another billion euros more than was earmarked in the investment plan for 2021 to 2024. Over 3,000 people at Bosch are working on hydrogen technologies, more than half of them in Europe.
At the start of 2023, Bosch started constructing prototypes for electrolysis using PEM fuel cells. Starting in the fall, the company intends to make 1.25 MW prototypes available for pilot applications, and is on track to start volume production in 2025. Bosch is exploring several options for the use of hydrogen. Stationary solid-oxide fuel cells can be used for the distributed supply of power and heat. In a pilot project at the hospital in Erkelenz, near Cologne in Germany, the company wants to use this technology to achieve overall efficiency of 90%. The micropower plant there will initially run on natural gas, but can be converted to green hydrogen.
Apart from the fuel cell powertrain, Bosch is also working on the hydrogen engine, developing systems for both port and direct injection of hydrogen. This solution is particularly suitable for heavy vehicles on long hauls with especially heavy loads. “A hydrogen engine can do everything a diesel engine does, but on top of that, it is carbon neutral. It also allows a fast and cost-effective entry into hydrogen-based mobility,” said Mr. Heyn. One major advantage is that more than 90% of the development and manufacturing technologies needed for it already exist. The H2 engine is expected to be launched starting in 2024.
