H2Future
NEWS

H2Future at the EU Sustainable Energy Week

October 2021

The H2Future project will take part in the extended programme of the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) from 11 to 22 October.

On Monday 18th October 2021 from 15:00h to 16:30h will be an online session with speakers from Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, European Steel Technology Platform, Clean Steel Partnership, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission, Salzgitter AG and our Project Coordinator from VERBUND.

500 Tons of Green Hydrogen Produced

2021

The H2FUTURE electrolyzer has been running since November 2019 and has now produced over 500 tonnes of green hydrogen during the test scenarios and in quasi-commercial operation.

The H2FUTURE demonstration project is primarily concerned with the production and use of green hydrogen for the steel industry. For decarbonisation, voestalpine plans to gradually switch to green electricity and, in the long term, green hydrogen. This will require around 340.000 tonnes of green hydrogen, which is more than 400 times the H2FUTURE capacity. The hydrogen produced so far in the pilot plant would correspond to the production of only 8.800 tonnes of "green steel". The challenges therefore lie in upscaling to large industrial scale, in the availability of green hydrogen and in economic viability.

The H2FUTURE project still runs until the end of 2021 and the whole project team is very curious to find out how much green hydrogen will be produced by the end of the year.

Picture: H2FUTURE "Bubbles"
Copyright: voestalpine

H2Future on ORF

March 2021

On 30 March, Federal Minister Gewessler visited voestalpine in Linz. During the visit she was able to see the H2Future plant and gain an impression of the research facility.

ORF Landesstudio Oberösterreich | March 30th, 2021 | Editor: Ronald Meyer

Green Hydrogen for Industry - Regulatory Workshop

February 2021

“Green Hydrogen for Industry – Regulatory Workshop” by VERBUND in cooperation with ACER and CEER

On 11th Feburar 2021 a virtual workshop on regulatory affairs took place.

More than 170 participants from industry, authorities, research institutions and project partners used the opportunity to get current information on outcomes of the project and background information of regulatory issues.

A recording of the workshop and the slides are available at
https://www.ceer.eu/web/portal/green_hydrogen_for_industry_-_regulatory_workshop

Start of Operation of the PEM Electrolyser

November 2019

On 11th November, the project consortium represented by CEO Herbert Eibensteiner (voestalpine), CEO Wolfgang Anzengruber (VERBUND) and CEO Wolfgang Hesoun (Siemens) announced the successful start of producing green hydrogen in Linz. Bart Biebuyck (Executive Director FCH JU) joint the press event to highlight the importance of R&D projects like H2FUTURE in paving the way towards a sustainable future.

Advisory Board visits H2Future Construction Site

Linz, March 21st, 2019

The H2FUTURE project Advisory Board visited, as part of the 2nd Advisory Board meeting hosted by voestalpine, the construction site in Linz. Topics discussed were the status of the H2FUTURE project, examples of integrated energy system projects, as well as the integrated energy approach from European and Austrian perspective. Project partner TNO presented first results on scale-up and roll-out scenarios of green hydrogen in steel and fertilizer industries.

The mission of the H2FUTURE Advisory Board is to provide the Governing Bodies of H2FUTURE with broad-based advice and guidance to reduce project risks and to leverage future activities on the utilization of green hydrogen.

Advisory Board and project partners visiting the H2FUTURE construction site. Copyright: voestalpine

 

FCH JU Award for H2Future

Brussels, November 15th, 2018

Brussels, 15th November 2018: We are proud to announce that H2FUTURE is amongst the winning projects for the FCH JU "success story" award 2018.

The H2Future project has already been part of the recently published FCH JU brochure "FCH JU success stories". The brochure is available for download PDF / 3.5 MBas well as on the EU Clean Hydrogen Partnership website.

From left to right: Rudolf Zauner, Walbrger Hemetsberger (both: VERBUND), Bart Biebuyck (Executive Director, FCH JU)

H2Future at the High Level Energy Conference in Linz

Linz, September 17th, 2018

Around 200 participants from all over Europe gathered for the High-Level Energy Conference: “Charge for Change: Innovative Technologies for Energy-Intensive Industries”. This event was organised as part of the Austrian Presidency of the Council ofthe European Union, one day before the Informal Meeting of the Energy Ministers.

As part of the High-Level Energy Conference, H2FUTURE was presented to the audience, including a site visit to the voestalpine steel production site, where the PEM electrolyser will be deployed.

The H2FUTURE project factsheet published for the event can be downloaded herePDF / 521.4 KB.

More information on the High-Level Energy Event: https://www.eu2018.at/calendar-events/political-events/BMNT-2018-09-17-HL-Conference-Energy.html 

Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner, Climate Action and Energy and other high-level guests visiting the H2FUTURE site at voestalpine Linz. Copyright: BMNT / Robert Strasser

H2Future: A Clean Energy Innovation EU Success Story

May 2018

H2FUTURE is part of the EU video "Accelerating green energy innovation". Watch the video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L5yZFd-OEE

H2Future On Track

Linz, April 16th, 2018

An EU-funded flagship project for a CO2-reduced energy future and the decarbonization of steel production is taking shape: today, at the voestalpine site in Linz, the H2FUTURE project consortium, consisting of voestalpine, Siemens, VERBUND, and Austrian Power Grid, together with the research partners K1-MET and ECN, officially gave the go-ahead for construction of the world’s largest pilot plant for the production of “green” hydrogen. With a capacity of 6 megawatts, this is the most effective and advanced plant of its type. The partners from industry and power generation will use this facility to research into future breakthrough technologies which are needed to meet global climate goals over the long-term. The plant is scheduled to be fully operational in 2019.

from left to right: CEO Wolfgang Hesoun (Siemens Austria), Head of Steel Division Herbert Eibensteiner (voestalpine), Executive Director Bart Biebuyck (FCH JU), CEO Wolfgang Eder (voestalpine), CEO Wolfgang Anzengruber (VERBUND)

Reducing CO2 emissions by around 80 percent to 2050 is the central climate goal, and requires both energy suppliers and industry to prepare themselves and explore new pathways together. This is the role of the H2FUTURE research project. More than 600 billion cubic meters of hydrogen are used annually worldwide, more than 95 percent of which is produced via a CO2-intensive process. What will be the world’s largest and most advanced plant of its type for generating “green”, i.e. CO2-free hydrogen, will be built at the voestalpine premises in Linz. In future the EU-funded EUR 18 million project will be used to test the potential applications for green hydrogen in the various process stages of steel production, and integration into the power reserve markets for the power grid. For the industry, transport, and energy sectors, CO2-free hydrogen is an important source of energy for sector coupling and can significantly contribute to achieving the climate goals. The new plant is designed to be a technological milestone on the pathway to the energy transition, and thus to the gradual decarbonization of the steel industry.

Clear vision: steel production with minimal emissions

After the launch of the project at the beginning of 2017, construction of the pilot facility at the voestalpine site in Linz has now accelerated. The foundations are in place and construction of the hall is currently underway. The core electrolysis components will be delivered during the summer, with the plant going live within a year. The start of the comprehensive two-year test program is planned to be started in 2019. “Construction of the new pilot plant for the production of CO2-free hydrogen is taking us a step further towards the long-term realization of a technology transformation in the steel industry. The goal is to research real breakthrough technologies which will be applicable on an industrial scale in the next couple of decades,” says Wolfgang Eder, Chairman of the Management Board of voestalpine AG. The vision of the technology and capital goods group is to move away from coal and coke via bridging technologies based on natural gas, as is already the case at the direct reduction plant in Texas, and finally on to the greatest possible use of green hydrogen. “The prerequisite is the provision of sufficient energy from renewable sources and at competitive prices,” adds Herbert Eibensteiner, Member of the Management Board of voestalpine AG and responsible for the Steel Division.

Heart of the plant with enormous output efficiency

“At the core of the plant beats a high-tech heart from Siemens. Using green electrons we split water into its constituent parts, hydrogen and oxygen,” explains Wolfgang Hesoun, Chairman of the Managing Board of Siemens AG Österreich (Siemens Austria). Siemens has developed what is currently the world’s largest PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolyser module for the research facility in Linz. With a capacity of 6 megawatts, the plant will be able to produce 1,200 cubic meters of “green” hydrogen an hour. The goal is to achieve a record output efficiency of 80 percent in converting electricity into hydrogen. The hydrogen can be stored for use in a multitude of applications: as a raw material in the industry, as seen in Linz, but also as a fuel for mobility and as an energy carrier in electricity and gas supply. “Siemens’ DNA is clean energy: from generation and distribution to application. Efficient technologies are a key element in curbing climate change with its dramatic consequences,” Hesoun explains. Global demand for hydrogen will increase tenfold by 2050, to around 6 trillion cubic meters. Plants such as the one in Linz are the prerequisite for meeting this growing demand in an almost CO2-neutral manner. “The research facility in Linz is bringing the world one step closer to the goal of global decarbonization,” says Roland Busch, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG responsible for innovations. “Technology such as PEM electrolysis allows us to help our customers meet their climate protection obligations. Siemens is leading the way and has set itself its own specific decarbonization goals: by 2020 we will have halved the CO2 balance of our operative business, becoming climate neutral by 2030,” says Busch.

Green electricity for green hydrogen

Only when water is electrolyzed using electricity from renewable sources can “green” hydrogen be produced. With its 128 hydropower plants, VERBUND, Austria’s largest electricity company and a leading European hydropower electricity producer, generates almost 100% of its electricity from renewable sources. “To integrate the volatile renewable energy from wind and solar power into the energy system, we will need even more storage capabilities in future. In addition to our pumped-storage plants in the Alps, and battery storage solutions of various dimensions, we see huge potential in energy storage with green hydrogen,” says Wolfgang Anzengruber, CEO of VERBUND. “For us, “green” hydrogen is the perfect example of the sector coupling which is urgently required for decarbonizing power generation, industry, and transport.” VERBUND will supply electricity generated from renewables for the H2FUTURE project, and is also responsible for the development of grid-relevant services. Using demand side management, the PEM electrolyser functions as a dynamic, normal load component, helping to compensate for fluctuations in an increasingly volatile power supply.

Flagship EU Commission project

The project volume for the new plant amounts to around EUR 18 million for six consortium partners over a project period of 4.5 years. Around EUR 12 million of this is funding from the European Commission, specifically from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). “The H2FUTURE project is one of the FCH JU flagship projects financed from the EU Horizon2020 program. It demonstrates that greening large industry, such as steelmaking, is feasible and is a viable option in the near future. Moreover, this project successfully shows sector coupling. Both these aspects are vital in proving that hydrogen is an important piece of the puzzle in achieving European climate goals,” explains Bart Biebuyck, Executive director, Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU).

H2Future Presentation at the IPHE 27th Steering Committee Meeting

In April 2017, H2FUTURE was presented at the 27th Steering Committee Meeting of the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE).

H2Future Official Kickoff

Vienna, February 7th, 2017

H2FUTURE starts with a kick off press conference on 07th February 2017 in Vienna. The press release is available for download herePDF / 158.2 KB.

From left to right: CEO Wolfgang Hesoun (Siemens), Executive Director Bart Biebuyck (FCH JU), CEO Wolfgang Anzengruber (VERBUND AG) and CEO Wolfgang Eder (voestalpine) at the Kick Off press conference.