Rostock-Laage, May 18, 2026, A pilot plant at the H2APEX site in Laage has achieved what entire industries are working on: Hydrogen can be transported safely, without pressure and over long distances – chemically bound in a substance that everyone knows. On May 5, 2026, AKROS Energy GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of H2APEX, officially put its salt-based hydrogen storage facility into operation. The technology uses potassium hydrogen carbonate – baking powder commonly used in industry – as a carrier medium and proves on an industrial scale what was previously only possible in the laboratory.
An answer to the most persistent problem of the hydrogen economy
Hydrogen is produced in large quantities where there is plenty of sun, wind or water. It is consumed in steelworks, chemical parks and industrial regions, often thousands of kilometers away. High-pressure storage facilities, liquid hydrogen and pipelines are coming up against economic, safety and infrastructural limits – and are therefore slowing down the global hydrogen ramp-up: countries such as Australia, Chile, Namibia or Morocco could produce green hydrogen on a large scale, but without an economical transportation solution, it remains on site. AKROS turns the problem around: Instead of transporting hydrogen itself, it is chemically bound in salt.
At the heart of the system is a container-based reaction module in which the catalyst developed by AKROS converts an aqueous solution of potassium hydrogen carbonate (KHCO₃) together with hydrogen into potassium formate (KCOOH). The loaded salt is stable, non-toxic, non-flammable, environmentally friendly and can be stored indefinitely. At its destination, the reaction is reversed – and the hydrogen is released as required.
“With the pilot plant, we are demonstrating that our technology works on an industrial scale. Salt as a hydrogen carrier offers a safe, cost-effective and low-infrastructure way of transporting hydrogen from regions where it can be produced on a large scale to the industrial customers who need it.”
Johannes Emigholz, CEO of AKROS Energy GmbH
Industry and research hand in hand
The plant was realized together with Evonik and Siemens, who have been supporting AKROS with the scale-up for years. The technology is scientifically supported by LIKAT Rostock (Leibniz Institute for Catalysis) – a long-standing research partner of H2APEX, with whom several joint patents have been created. The project is embedded in the publicly co-financed research and development project FormaPort, funded by the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and co-financed by the European Union, with AKROS Energy as consortium leader and the partners LIKAT, TAB and Wismar University of Applied Sciences.
Patrick Dahlemann, Head of the State Chancellery of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, also attended the official opening at the Laage site – a political signal for the growing importance of the federal state as a location for the German hydrogen economy.
From the pilot to the market
The step from piloting to the market is now imminent. AKROS Energy is presenting the technology to international industrial customers, investors and energy suppliers at the World Hydrogen Summit 2026 in Rotterdam (May 19 to 21, stand 6E60). There is great interest: the import corridors that Germany and Europe are currently developing – from North Africa across the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific – need exactly this kind of solution. While the hydrogen economy is gaining pace globally, the economic transportation of the energy source remains one of the last major hurdles. AKROS provides an answer that works not only in the laboratory but also in industrial containers.
H2APEX is once again demonstrating what the brand is all about: hydrogen from Germany is not a vision, but a supply. Stable, scalable – and now also transportable.
About H2APEX
H2APEX, based in Rostock-Laage, develops, builds and operates plants for the production, storage and distribution of green hydrogen. With over 100 employees, a growing pipeline of major projects (including WAL Hydrogen Hub Lubmin, Spark, HyBit Bremen) and an integrated range of solutions from the molecule to the filling station, H2APEX is one of the leading hydrogen specialists in Europe. The wholly-owned subsidiary AKROS Energy complements the portfolio with a patented technology for the chemical storage and transportation of hydrogen in salt.