Bosch: Pioneer for the global hydrogen economy

Technology companies such as Bosch are playing a key role in launching the hydrogen economy. Thanks to their global presence and expertise in large-scale industrial manufacturing, they can make hydrogen solutions globally available.

Global climate targets call for global action: Global warming can be contained only if the switch from fossil fuels and raw materials to green hydrogen and other climate-neutral energy carriers is implemented worldwide. That is why there is a need for technology suppliers that combine expertise in large-scale industrial manufacture with a multinational presence – companies such as Bosch, which are capable of  taking their hydrogen solutions to every continent.

Hydrogen is of key strategic importance for Bosch, says Matthias Ziebell, Senior Vice President Sales Energy Markets and Business Development at Robert Bosch GmbH. “We asked ourselves which of our existing technologies we could transform for the world of hydrogen, and where we could apply our skills in industrialization to achieve the best possible customer benefit,” Ziebell comments. The result of this analysis: “Thanks to our extensive technology portfolio and our decades of experience in transforming innovations into mass production, we’re able to develop solutions all along the hydrogen value chain.”

That starts with water treatment for the electrolysis process and continues with the PEM electrolysis stacks, which are at the heart of hydrogen production. Bosch also manufactures fuel cell systems: mobile for utility vehicles, stationary for decentralized generation of electricity and heat. Then there are motors and industrial boilers, which can operate using pure hydrogen. And subsidiary Bosch Rexroth provides compressors capable of compressing it to as much as 900 bar for distribution to fuel stations, for example.

Sales with hydrogen technologies by 2030 approximately five billion euros

A good number of Bosch technologies are already available on the market, with others to follow in the coming years. The company is also working with international partners from countries such as the US, China and India. The targets are ambitious: “By 2030, Bosch aims to achieve sales of about five billion euros across the entire company from hydrogen solutions,” says Ziebell.

For the German domestic market, however, Bosch would like overall conditions to improve. “While we can see a rise in the number of final decisions to invest in hydrogen technologies both in Germany and globally, the pace is still not fast enough for the rapid ramp-up of the hydrogen economy that we need,” Ziebell concludes.

Bosch blog article