Since October 1st, 2021, the center for fuel cell technology in Duisburg, Zentrum für BrennstoffzellenTechnik Duisburg (ZBT), has had a new science director. Dr. Harry Hoster also took over as Chair of Energy Technology at Universität Duisburg-Essen, succeeding Dr. Angelika Heinzel, who had retired end of 2020 (see H2-international Feb. 2021).
At the end of 2020, Angelika Heinzel stepped down as chief executive of ZBT’s fuel cell technology center, a research institute she led for a total of 19 years. In March, she will also leave her professorship at Duisburg-Essen University’s Mechanical and Process Engineering department, and her leading scientific role at ZBT. As for her successor in the science department, the university is still in the hiring process.
There is a lot going on in the energy sector at the moment. As a result of numerous activities and events – be it diesel scandals or CO2 pricing, driving bans or Fridays-for-Future demonstrations, flight shame or real laboratories – more and more players are committing themselves to more sustainability as well as to hydrogen as an energy storage.
Since the end of last May, the Center for Fuel Cell Technology (ZBT) in Duisburg has had a phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) in operation, which supplies the research institute with power and heat. The 100-kW unit even took on three additional tasks: It reduces energy costs, it serves as the basis for scientific studies in combined heat and power and it helps to produce air low on oxygen.