The Technical Centre Opens its Doors

Alongside the INW container units, the institute’s technical centre has been under construction since the end of last year. The building is complete and the INW employees can now move in. Photo: Forschungszentrum Jülich/Jansen

Key handed over

An important event for Jülich hydrogen researchers – employees at Forschungszentrum Jülich’s Institute for a Sustainable Hydrogen Economy (INW) can now move into their technical centre. On Monday, 18 September 2023, Martin Jungmann, managing director of the building’s investor and lessor Jülicher Immobiliengesellschaft (JIG), handed over the keys to the INW directors.

“The technical centre is a huge milestone for us. It gives us the opportunity to test the results of our research for the transport and storage of hydrogen on site. Previously, we have only been able to design and simulate our models and ideas on our computers. We are now putting things into action and can develop innovative processes and equipment which we later aim to use, for example, in our demonstration projects and to subsequently bring them into industrial practice,” says INW subinstitute director Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Peschel. “The technical centre is therefore also crucial to the further development of our institute. This new infrastructure will create new opportunities and jobs that will be very important for our further growth at INW.”

We are really happy that the technical centre was built so quickly thanks to Jülicher Immobiliengesellschaft. Barely nine months have passed from the start of construction until the building’s completion. This speed of development is important to us.”

Dr. Susanne Spörler

At the end of November, employees of the building contractor Valeres Industriebau GmbH laid the foundation for the building and put the first steel structures in place shortly thereafter. “We are really happy that the technical centre was built so quickly thanks to Jülicher Immobiliengesellschaft. Barely nine months have passed from the start of construction until the building’s completion. This speed of development is important to us,” says Dr. Susanne Spörler, head of the Infrastructure and Scientific Coordination department at INW. “I’d also like to say thank you to the employees of the building contractor Valeres, who went about their work professionally even during minus temperatures in winter.”

As a member of the JIG general assembly, Jülich mayor Axel Fuchs also welcomed INW’s rapid move into the technical centre. “Structural change and climate change are pressing issues. We need to find good solutions quickly. We are demonstrating here that this is possible when everyone is pulling in the right direction. I hope that we can continue to find such good solutions at Brainergy Park and wish the INW team every success in bringing the centre to life with scientific activity.”

INW is now beginning interior work on the centre, which will house a workshop and provide the space to set up innovative equipment that will be relevant to the energy transition.