Voestalpine is expanding its H2FUTURE hydrogen research project at its Linz site in Austria to cover not only green hydrogen production but also its compression, purification, storage and supply for industrial applications.
The expansion, carried out with energy company VERBUND, will add a compression and purification unit and five hydrogen storage tanks to the pilot plant. The investment amounts to EUR 16.4 mln (USD 18.37 mln).
The expanded facility will compress and purify hydrogen produced through electrolysis before temporarily storing it. Four of the five new tanks will help balance fluctuations in hydrogen production and consumption, while the fifth will supply the HY4SMELT industrial-scale demonstration plant at the Linz site via a roughly 1 km pipeline from the end of 2027.
Hydrogen can also be compressed to up to 500 bar and loaded into trailers for road transport, allowing it to be supplied to external customers and other research and industrial projects, including the SuSteel project, an innovative research initiative focused on producing carbon-neutral crude steel directly from iron ore in a single step using hydrogen plasma smelting reduction at Voestalpine’s Donawitz site.
The first functional tests of the follow-up project have begun, with initial research results expected by the end of 2026. The project is scheduled to run until December 2030 and is supported by Austria’s Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism.
The H2FUTURE plant has been operating since 2019 and has a connected load of 6 MW, with capacity to produce up to 1,200 cubic meters of green hydrogen per hour. Since commissioning, it has produced almost 2,000 tons of green hydrogen.
Headquartered in Austria, Voestalpine is a global steel and technology group operating around 500 companies and locations in more than 50 countries. The company supplies high-value steel products and engineered solutions to the automotive, commercial vehicle, railway, aerospace, energy and machinery sectors.
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