Smart Power to heat

Prototypical initial application of hydrogen in the field of process heat applications

Germany’s largest cluster for the decarbonization of industrial process heat applications in SMEs is being established in Gelsenkirchen. ZINQ is a founding member of this initiative and is showing how it works with Power2ZINQ: a prototype initial application of hydrogen in the field of process heat applications is being implemented at the Gelsenkirchen site.

In order to decarbonize industrial process heat, ZINQ is focusing on green hydrogen in addition to renewable electricity. In order to replace the carbon-rich energy source natural gas with climate-friendly hydrogen in the long term, ZINQ has been working on the technical preparations for converting the plant in Gelsenkirchen since 2016. At the same time, ZINQ is working to ensure that hydrogen becomes acceptable in industrial process heat and that energy-intensive SMEs can obtain hydrogen at competitive prices in the future.

To this end, ZINQ is joining forces with 16 other energy-intensive companies from the city port to found the Gelsenkirchen Climate Port Initiative. The aim is to rapidly develop the hydrogen infrastructure and supply green hydrogen in order to drive forward the transformation of the economy towards climate neutrality. A bottom-up study commissioned by the initiative confirmed the importance of company-specific transformation paths that take green hydrogen into account for the decarbonization of process heat.

The Power2ZINQ pilot project is a key building block on the road to zero carbon. At the same time, ZINQ also wants to provide impetus for the approximately 300,000 large industrial firing systems throughout Germany. After all, if they all converted their plants to hydrogen, around 40 million tons of CO2 could be saved every year.