Producing hydrogen directly on site - at Belenus in the Black Forest

The Challenge

Belenus GmbH wanted to produce and use hydrogen directly on-site at its location in Bad Dürrheim to make mobility and energy supply more independent and sustainable. An external hydrogen supply would have entailed high logistics costs, dependencies, and a lack of flexibility. At the same time, water treatment, electrolysis, compression, storage, and utilization had to be integrated into a compact, reliable system. For a medium-sized manufacturing company, a scalable and economically viable solution was required—not a large-scale plant.

The sera Solution

sera implemented a compact Smart Energy System for local hydrogen production and use. The system treats the water for electrolysis, dries and conditions the produced hydrogen, and compresses it with a compressor (AG300.1) from approximately 30 bar to 300 bar for storage in cylinder bundles. Via a manual overflow unit, the hydrogen can be used directly on-site for vehicle refueling. The entire system has a modular design and can be expanded with additional electrolyzers or compressors. In the future, the integration of a water treatment system for the use of cistern water is planned.

Customer Benefits

• Independent, on-site hydrogen supply without external logistics
• Compact, integrated system for production, purification, compression, and storage
• Scalable solution that can grow with demand
• Foundation for further applications such as power generation or heat utilization

Summary

The project demonstrates how decentralized hydrogen production can be technically and economically feasible even for medium-sized businesses—without large-scale infrastructure and without dependence on external supply.