The annual event for the hydrogen and fuel cell industries – to be held in Messe Stuttgart near the airport, a departure from last year’s exhibition at Haus Der Wirtschaft – provides a welcome post-pandemic networking opportunity and platform to showcase new developments in the rapidly developing sectors.

Organisers are keen to promote the event as a ‘Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Conference and Trade Fair’, in a bid to cement links between the two sectors, and to that effect a new corporate design (Hy-Fcell) will be unveiled next week.

The exhibition features a comprehensive conference programme, featuring 60 leading speakers, at the neighbouring International Congress Centre (ICS).

There is global momentum to f-cell – which has been running for 21 years – with exhibitions in China, Canada and most recently, Saudi Arabia, with the latter set to make its debut at the Fairmont Riyadh between March 6-8 2023.

Andreas Wiesinger, Vice President at Landesmesse Stuttgart, said the f-cell awards will have three different categories this year, covering R&D, products and markets, and new for 2023, a special award for start ups.

Supporting programme includes two evening networking events, Speakers Corner (hall 2), and Ride & Drive – where delegates will have the chance to drive a Hyundai hydrogen-powered vehicle.

“F-cell is gaining ever more importance, as hydrogen is a key element of the energy turnaround, of climate targets, and energy independence,” he said.

Max Gruner, from New Mexico’s Economic Development Department, which is the show’s main sponsor – and attending for the first time – will be leveraging its “greatest asset”, its workforce, and higher education centres of learning, as well as its natural resources and infrastructure.

“Whether you need PHDs in electrical engineering or staff to go through a certificate programme, we can build those programmes for you. We are ideally positioned to welcome companies who are doing exciting work in the hydrogen and fuel cell sector.”

Christopher Hebling, Director Division Hydrogen Technologies Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE – which has 115 staff working on sustainable mobility and hydrogen/fuel cell solutions – presented slides showing the rise in carbon dioxide concentrations and temperature changes, to underline the “paradigm shift” now underway.

“We are close to zero now with natural gas from Russia, so this is a totally new situation, and we need to newly define the triangle between energy security, affordability of energy and climate protection.”

From the pipeline-dense European networks, he moved onto the global opportunities for regions in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and Australia in the ‘new energy’ era, in which hydrogen and green energy will play a pivotal part.

“Hydrogen and hydrogen products are ‘on’ and f-cell will shed light on all the business cases and stakeholders,” he said. He highlighted the following key products which will be promoted at the show:

Dr. Christian Mohrdieck, Chief Commercial Officer at cellcentric – a joint venture between Daimler Truck and Volvo group, which is focusing on long haul heavy duty fuel cell engines for trucks – shared several key insights, drawing on the broader 25 years’ evolution in fuel cells, and his personal involvement with f-cell since 2004.

“First of all there is always huge discussion about batteries or fuel cells, and we think you need both,” he said. “Especially when it comes to weight, range and rapid refuelling, the fuel cell offers a broad opportunity to electrify. But it’s clear in the heavy duty long haul, there aren’t many options to electrify. Theoretically, you could do it with batteries but they would weigh a lot, so that’s why we decided last year to equip the long-haul, 40-tonne segment with fuel cell engines.”

He said the bigger and heavier the vehicle, the higher the daily energy demand, and longer range requirement – making hydrogen solutions better suited. “We need collaboration to make it happen, so the f-cell conference and fair is an essential event to bring together all involved players.”

Franz Loogen, from e-mobil BW, said, “There is more importance to electrolysers, there is a big invest worldwide, and Germany is very well placed positioned for production, and we need a lot of infrastructure to support hydrogen and its derivatives. We expect new vehicles changing big business all over Europe and the world.

“We see that hydrogen will become part of our energy supply worldwide, and hydrogen is a central energy carrier of the future. If you want to make hydrogen successful, it’s good to think of it as a renewable energy form which is market driven.

“With the f-Cell, we can intensify worldwide networking, in a fun place, the middle of European’s machine industry, so let’s come together after Coronavirus, and find a lot of ideas for a lot of projects.”

Once again H2 View will be attending f-cell as an official media partner, and reporting on latest news and views.

Come and meet us at booth 2C42. If you’d like to join us, please take advantage of a discounted ticket with code H2VIEW2022. We look forward to seeing you there.