MAN brings hydrogen drive research to the Nuremberg plant

The commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus is bringing research on hydrogen-based drives to its factory premises in Nuremberg and has signed a cooperation agreement with the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and the Nuremberg University of Applied Sciences (THN) for research and development. For the first time, university researchers and students will jointly operate a common laboratory and test benches for researching hydrogen technology directly on the premises of a vehicle manufacturer, the company says. With the hydrogen campus, today’s MAN diesel engine plant is laying the foundation for its transformation towards alternative drives, it is believed.

The joint work of researchers and engineers directly in the MAN plant enables an immediate collaboration within the project team, it is hoped. Additionally, the already existing infrastructure favors practice-oriented and application-related research and development. The mutual exchange of know-how is expected to noticeably accelerate research on hydrogen drives. FAU will focus on fundamental research, THN will bring its strengths in the field of application-oriented research, and the commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN will ensure the implementation of the research results in hydrogen fuel cells and combustion engines in trucks and buses.

Covering the Entire Value Chain

The work on the hydrogen campus will cover the entire value chain of the drive system, from the environmentally friendly production of hydrogen, through distribution and infrastructure, energy conversion back to electricity, all the way to the application of the technology in vehicles for customers. Furthermore, the profound structural change in the commercial vehicle industry is associated with a massive need for training and further education. By integrating research into the plant, MAN can leverage the strengths of FAU and TH in research and teaching, for instance, in the retraining of a diesel engine developer to a fuel cell expert. In return, researchers and students benefit from MAN's many years of experience with hydrogen drives and from the infrastructure, such as test benches.

"As a commercial vehicle manufacturer, we are facing the greatest change in our industry since the invention of the diesel engine. Back then, MAN provided Rudolf Diesel with the necessary capital and equipment to develop his engine. Today, it is about the successful industrialization of alternative drives such as battery-electric drives, fuel cells, or hydrogen combustion engines," explains Dr. Frederik Zohm, Executive Board Member for Research & Development at MAN Truck & Bus SE.