In a statement, the steelmaker said the H2FUTURE project will provide a platform for experimentation with creating hydrodgen through electrolysis that uses renewably generated electricity. 

The core electrolysis components are to be delivered this summer, and the plant is to come on-line within a year. The start of its comprehensive two-year test program is to begin the spring of 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," said voestalpine chairman Wolfgang Eder. 

"The goal is to research real breakthrough technologies which will be applicable on an industrial scale in the next couple of decades,” he said.