The technical universities will present their sub-projects at the strategy meeting. For TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Rector Professor Jutta Emes and Professor of Gas and Heat Technology Hartmut Krause have travelled to Dresden to present TUBAF's expertise in hydrogen research. They are accompanied by the Vice-Rector for Research and Transfer, Professor Martin Bertau, project partner Professor Urs Peuker and several project members. The meeting will focus on the joint project "Hy²Cycle", which was acquired as part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Michael Kretschmer, Minister President of the Free State of Saxony:

"Hydrogen is and will remain an energy source of the future and a central building block for the climate-neutral transformation. The strong cooperation in the Saxon Hydrogen Union ensures technological progress, regional value creation and competitiveness on a European and global scale. Despite the current high energy prices, scarce availability and challenging European framework conditions, we are consistently working with the federal government to ensure that the hydrogen strategies take full effect."

Prof. Jutta Emes, Rector of TU Bergakademie Freiberg:

"As Saxony's resource university, we focus on the integration of climate-neutral energy sources, sustainability and the circular process in both research and teaching. The topic of hydrogen is therefore practically anchored in our DNA. A particular focus of research in Freiberg is the further development of the gas infrastructure with its networks and storage facilities. In addition, hydrogen production requires many critical raw materials whose sources are not located in our country. The efficient use of resources and the consistent recycling of these materials is therefore essential not only in the hydrogen economy, but in all downstream stages of the value chain, such as the production of chemical base materials and eFuels, i.e. synthetically produced fuels."

Prof. Hartmut Krause, Professor of Gas and Heat Technology at TU Bergakademie Freiberg:

"The task of the TUBAF professorships involved in H2Cycle is the fundamental investigation of thermal and mechanical processing methods for the composite materials used in fuel cells or electrolysers. They contain valuable materials such as platinum catalysts, carbon fibres or polymer base materials, the extraction of which in the highest possible quality allows them to be fed directly back into the production process. This protects scarce resources and reduces the effort required to provide them. On the other hand, they may also contain critical perpetual chemicals (PFAS) that should not be released into the environment and should be destroyed. The findings from reprocessing then flow back into the design process at our partners. With this circular approach, we are meeting the challenges in dealing with critical raw materials that are coming to light in the context of the energy transition. We are helping to make Saxony visible as a centre of science for the circular economy and supporting Saxon technology providers in strengthening their competitiveness."