Why Bosch is fully committed to hydrogen

What does Bosch have with hydrogen cars?

There are a handful of hydrogen cars available, such as a Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai Nexo. And, for example, the hydrogen delivery vans from Stellantis. But it doesn’t seem to really want to get off the ground. Why would Bosch get involved? We know Bosch at home from refrigerators and drills, but Bosch is also a producer of car parts and an important development partner for many car manufacturers. The car industry is important to the German company, all in all, their automotive branch generated a turnover of 52.6 billion euros last year, about 60 percent of the group’s total turnover. In order to maintain its position as a leading technology giant, Bosch has been seriously investing in hydrogen technology for the past two years; when everything is on track according to schedule in 2026, about 2.5 billion euros will have been invested in hydrogen technology. She means business. Incidentally, this does not mean that you will only be able to encounter the first Bosch systems on the road in three years’ time. Last month we already witnessed the start of series production of fuel cell modules at the Bosch plant in Stuttgart-Feuerbach.

Last month, Bosch’s first truck fuel cell unit rolled off the production line.

Why now suddenly hydrogen at Bosch?

During a previous visit to Bosch, in 2017, we were told that hydrogen would not be a solution for road traffic. Both passenger cars and road transport had to manage with combustion engines and battery-powered electric motors, whether or not in a combined arrangement. That was the vision of the future just six years ago. Bosch has now changed course. The planned reduction of global CO2 emissions makes fossil fuels a thing of the past. But the battery electric car (BEV) is also not seen as the holy grail. A limited availability of raw materials such as lithium and cobalt in the long term and, above all, possible problems in supplying all cars worldwide with the required amount of electricity at the desired time mean that Bosch is turning towards hydrogen. In order not to lag behind the facts, a cooperation project for battery cells with Samsung came to an end, the Germans are going strong.

A lack of raw materials could well contribute to the switch from batteries to fuel cells.

Are batteries not suitable for a truck?

Raw materials and a charging infrastructure are not the only barriers for BEVs. To create an acceptable range, you can still get by reasonably well with a battery pack in a passenger car. For freight traffic, however, they do not see this at Bosch. Long-distance transport requires very heavy battery packs for a decent range. as a result of which trucks can only carry a limited amount of cargo. And when all those trucks have to plug in at a stopping place, it either takes too much time or such a large electrical capacity that the infrastructure cannot handle it. Hydrogen does not have those problems. The fuel cell modules that are now coming off the production line in Stuttgart-Feuerbach are destined for the American truck manufacturer Nikola. With 70 kg of hydrogen in the tanks (700 bar), a tractor/trailer combination can travel about 800 kilometers, while the payload of the car is not much less than that of a conventionally driven colleague. The empty tanks are completely filled up again in 20 minutes. Get over that with batteries. Initially, the Nikola tractors are intended for the American market, from next year the trucks based on the Iveco S-Way will also be used in Europe.

Fuel cell units are built for Nikola trucks that fit in the same place where a large diesel engine is normally located.

Fuel cells only for large trucks?

In addition to the big boys, Bosch sees opportunities for the more compact truck in the weight class of 8 to 16 tons. The technology is modular and scalable. And also the lighter stuff is starting to come into the picture, even the larger vans. On the Bosch site we ride along with a prototype converted to FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle) based on a Volkswagen e-Crafter. Where the van has a range of 115 km as standard as an EV and then has to be charged for 45 minutes on the fast charger, the hydrogen prototype travels about 540 kilometers away, after which the tanks are refilled in 6 minutes. From such a delivery van, the step to passenger cars is quickly made. And if we can also use the hydrogen infrastructure that is already being rolled out for professional transport …

If the parcel deliverer is no longer allowed to enter the city with his diesel bus, hydrogen offers an alternative.

Why didn’t the fuel cell come sooner?

We ask Thomas Wintrich, responsible for fuel cell mobility at Bosch. Wintrich expects hydrogen passenger cars with Bosch technology before the end of the decade. That’s in seven years. At the end of the last century, AutoWeek drove hydrogen prototypes at Mercedes and we were then told that FCEVs would be in the showroom within five years, and in subsequent years it also remained ‘within five years’. So how serious is such a promise? “Back then the situation was different. There was no pressure like there is today with CO2. As a result, the urgency is a lot greater.” Wintrich expects that in 2030 one in five trucks above six tons will have a fuel cell powertrain, and that hydrogen technology at Bosch will generate a turnover of 5 billion euros in that year. “The total cost per kilometer of a fuel cell truck in 2030 will be equal to a comparable truck with a fossil fuel combustion engine. The only thing we have no direct influence on is the price of a kilogram of hydrogen. I expect it to have dropped below €4 per kg by then.” That is a significant decrease, currently you pay two to three times as much in the Netherlands, depending on the gas station.

At Bosch, they expect a sharp price drop for hydrogen.

What is the lifespan of a fuel cell?

Reducing the cost per kilometer also stems from the scale on which they will be producing fuel cells by that time. “But,” Wintrich continues, “that scaling up of production is now our big challenge.” Wouldn’t a car manufacturer like to build its own fuel cells in order to create some added value? “True, but that is not immediately profitable for smaller manufacturers. Furthermore, a car manufacturer does not necessarily have to purchase complete units. If the numbers increase, Nikola will produce its own fuel cell units under license. And we can also take on our role of parts supplier or, if desired, only be ready with knowledge and skills.” With that knowledge and skill, things seem to be going well. At Bosch, more than 3,000 people are currently working on hydrogen technology, among other things to extend the service life of the fuel cells from 20,000 operating hours, as in the FCEVs currently on the market, to 30,000 hours.

In the future, a package of fuel cells should last 30,000 hours.

Only SUVs or also compact cars on hydrogen?

Bosch is deploying broadly and is now involved in the entire chain, from systems for generating hydrogen (including the essential water purification technology) to systems that run on hydrogen. The latter concerns both mobile and stationary fuel cells, but also technology for hydrogen combustion engines, for construction machines and agricultural vehicles, for example. And not unimportant: the storage of hydrogen in the car. Until now, we have seen hydrogen cars with very large hydrogen tanks made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, which are therefore difficult to house in passenger cars. They usually only fit in a large SUV or crossover. At Bosch they are working on a solution with compact cylinders made of extra strong steel. These cylinders can withstand the hydrogen under extremely high pressure without an inner coating. Bosch gives those cylinders a fairly modest diameter, so that a set of those cylinders fits in the same space under the floor of a passenger car as an average battery pack of a BEV. A package of cylinders under the floor of a Volkswagen ID4, for example, could easily contain 5 kg of hydrogen, enough to travel 500 km, just like the ID4 with batteries. Because such a set of hydrogen tanks simply fits in the place of a battery pack, a car manufacturer can in principle use the same car with at most a few minor adjustments for both BEV and FCEV. And then things could go quickly with the rollout of the fuel cell car. If we are to believe Bosch, the signals for the hydrogen train are in any case green, although the first stop will not be the passenger car, but the truck.

A set of cylinders with a modest diameter fits easily under the floor of a passenger car.

How does a fuel cell work?

A fuel cell is a small electricity factory in which hydrogen (supplied from a tank) and oxygen (from the air) react to form water with electricity as a by-product. The fuel cell for cars is the so-called PEM fuel cell, where PEM stands for Proton Exchange Mebrane. That membrane is between the anode and cathode, say the minus and plus pole. The hydrogen molecule (H2) that is supplied to the anode side decomposes into two protons (H+) and two electrons (e-) with the aid of a catalyst (platinum). The membrane must prevent electrons, so actually the electricity, from crossing directly to the cathode, but leaving via the negative pole. The membrane also stops the hydrogen molecules. Only the protons (actually H+ ions) are allowed through. Arriving at the cathode, the two protons react with half an oxygen molecule (½O2) and – to get the picture right again – with the two electrons that return from their outdoor adventure (via an electric motor, for example) to water (H2O) via the positive pole. . This chemical process is exothermic, which means that heat is also released. The voltage difference between the plus and minus pole is in theory about 1.2 volts, but in practice it can drop to 0.7 volts. To achieve higher voltages, the cells are connected in series, such a package is also called a stack.

Electricity is generated in the fuel cell as a by-product of the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen.