The German government's new import strategy aims to ensure that Germany and the German economy have sufficient supplies of hydrogen and H2 derivatives. Hydrogen is a highly topical issue, and more and more components, such as pipelines, must be able to withstand the use of hydrogen safely.
Hahn-Schickard and the SKZ Plastics Centre have joined forces on this topic.
Hahn-Schickard from Villingen-Schwenningen manufactures solutions using microsystems technology, so-called microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). These systems are smaller than a fingernail and are also used in the field of hydrogen-guided parts. The SKZ in Würzburg is Europe's largest institute in the plastics sector and would like to integrate such systems into pipes and plastic components, for example, in order to establish a warning system for H2 leaks. In the ‘H2Sens’ project, the two institutes are working together to develop and validate a cost-effective hydrogen-selective sensor concept for H2-bearing components and semi-finished products.
H2Sens project launched
The prototypes created as part of the project will be tested for their sensitivity in a specially developed measuring chamber. The H2-selective sensors will then be attached to weak points of hydrogen-bearing components (such as sleeves or weld seams) to enable rapid intervention in the event of a hydrogen breakthrough.
The first results of the project were presented to cooperating companies in the project committee on 24 October 2024 and discussed in a digital meeting. One partner in the project is the company Hahn-Schickard, which has many years of expertise in the development, production and characterisation of miniaturised sensor systems with thermal operating principles.
‘In the field of flow sensors, customised silicon sensors and sensor modules have been developed for various applications in the past. The MEMS clean room is ISO-certified (ISO 9001:2015) and offers individual process steps through to complex production runs,’ says the project manager at Hahn-Schickard.
Hahn-Schickard uses a process technology for the selective ablation of sacrificial layers to produce surface micromechanics (OMM) structures with precise gap dimensions down to a few hundred nanometres. This enables a new generation of miniaturised thermal sensor structures with specific sensitivity due to the drastic aspect ratios. With this technology, highly integrated pressure, temperature and thermal gas sensors can be produced on a single sensor chip, which allow very precise compensation for thermal gas analysis due to their location at the same measuring point.
The areas of application for the sensor technology extend along the entire value chain of H2 applications - from efficiency monitoring in electrolysis or fuel cells, through accelerated material development, to safety monitoring of transport and storage infrastructure (pipes, tanks).
