Last week, the DLR_Startup Factory tour bus stopped in Cologne to inform potential entrepreneurs about how the German Aerospace Center (DLR) supports them on their way from an idea to a successful start-up. Silke Krebs, State Secretary at the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, provided valuable insights into the funding, networks and opportunities available to founders in North Rhine-Westphalia, and took the opportunity to visit a number of DLR institutes.
The visit to our Institute of Propulsion Technology focused on the question: How can we overcome the challenges to enable hydrogen propulsion? Our Institute Director, Florian Herbst, welcomed Silke Krebs and Karsten Lemmer in the test cell of our largest high-pressure combustion test facility. This is where we work with industry partners to develop cutting-edge hydrogen propulsion systems and H2-powered gas turbines for energy supply. For example, we demonstrated our Rolls-Royce Germany Innovation Award-winning endoscopic measurement technology. This technology provides optical data on combustion processes and is now being used by a number of industrial partners for the enhancement of their testing and innovation. We also presented our strategy for developing aviation hydrogen pumps and solutions for transporting cryogenic hydrogen from the tank to the combustion system and the conditioning of the energy carrier.
