Bosch fuel cell power module team nominated for the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2025
A three-person development team from Bosch is in the running for the Deutscher Zukunftspreis (German Future Prize) 2025.
Christoffer Uhr, Kai Weeber, and Pierre Andrieu have been nominated for the federal president’s prestigious award thanks to their work on a fuel cell power module (FCPM).
The FCPM converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. This means trucks worldwide can also run on electricity over long distances; if they use green hydrogen, their operation will be zero-carbon.
This is an important step in the fight against climate change. In the EU alone heavy commercial vehicles account for more than one-fourth of greenhouse gas emissions from road traffic – but it is impossible to imagine freight transport without them.
Image ©Bosch
Dr Stefan Hartung, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, said: “This nomination for the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2025 is an outstanding recognition for the Bosch team and everyone involved with the fuel cell power module.
“It’s also confirmation that we’re on the right track: hydrogen is indispensable for a climate-neutral world and is also a strategic business field for Bosch.”
With more than 1,000 individual parts and weighing around 500 kilograms, the FCPM is the most complex system Bosch has ever developed in its nearly 140-year history.
In addition to its centrepiece, the fuel cell stack, among the most important individual components are a hydrogen metering valve, a hydrogen recirculation pump, and an electric air compressor – everything needed to effectively transport water and atmospheric oxygen into the fuel cells for conversion into electricity.
Bosch has designed each individual part to work together optimally in the overall system.
Volume production of the system launched in Stuttgart-Feuerbach in mid-2023 and a little later in Chongqing, China. One thing to note is that, unlike batteries, for example, building the FCPM requires hardly any critical raw materials.
The module is designed to fit into the space that in over 95 per cent of all trucks was previously occupied by the combustion engine.
For freight forwarders and logistics companies, using a truck with the Bosch FCPM is no different than with the diesel technology they are used to: with high robustness for the vehicle’s entire service life, short hydrogen refuelling times, and a long range of up to 1,000 kilometres per tank. Moreover, the powertrain module enables almost whisper-quiet operation without vibrations.
Germany’s federal president has awarded the “Deutscher Zukunftspreis for technology and innovation” since 1997. These innovations reflect the wide range of research and development in Germany and honour outstanding research and development projects.
For more information, visit www.bosch.com.