Municipal Utility Bielefeld Puts 1 MW Electrolyzer into Operation

Bielefeld's municipal utility company, Stadtwerke Bielefeld, in partnership with the Bielefeld-Herford waste incineration plant (MVA), has fully assembled and tested a 1 MW PEM electrolyzer on the plant's premises. Trial operation of the plant for regional hydrogen production is scheduled to begin in early September. The hydrogen produced will be fed directly into the adjacent hydrogen filling station at the Sector Coupling Innovation Park and used to power moBiel's fuel cell buses.

The electricity required for electrolysis comes from the MVA's thermal waste treatment process. Since at least 50 percent of the processed waste is of biogenic origin, this portion of the electricity can be classified as renewable. Approximately 41,000 kilograms of hydrogen are expected to be produced in the first year of operation. With sufficient capacity utilization, the plant can produce up to 144,000 kilograms annually, thus fully covering the current hydrogen demand of the moBiel bus fleet.

The electricity required for electrolysis comes from the thermal waste treatment process at the MVA. The overall project has a volume of approximately €5.3 million and is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport as part of the National Innovation Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology. The municipal utility sees local production as a way to strengthen the hydrogen supply for its bus fleet and reduce external deliveries and the associated transport routes.