Underground Sun Storage 2030 - Start

Reliable H2 supply for resource intensive industries

In this work package, project partners voestalpine, K1-Met, TU Vienna EEG and Verbund investigate the technological applicability of hydrogen to use after its storage and withdrawal from natural gas reservoirs. The focus is on the potential use of this hydrogen in the energy intensive industries while at the same time to research the suitability of existing steel grades for the use as a construction material to support future hydrogen infrastructure will be involved.

All of the withdrawn gas streams from the reservoir will be evaluated in order to assess the possible applications in steel production processes. This will be done via process calculation as well as laboratory reduction tests. The focus is on hydrogen use as reducing agent, which can either be used in the direct reduction process or replace carbon-based reductants in the blast furnace. The gas compositions are expected to change over the withdrawal time, and it is therefore essential to examine the gases over the entire use-time.

The need for pressurized storage, transportation and new large scale infrastructure for hydrogen will result in several challenges for existing materials. An important aspect to be considered when using metallic materials, especially steels for hydrogen infrastructure, is their potential embrittlement. This task will therefore review the suitability of typical steel grades of voestalpine for application in the fields of hydrogen storage, transportation and use.

In WP7 the partners aim to determine the quantity and required quality of the expected hydrogen streams from storage for future continuous use in the steel and other energy intensive industries as well as the evaluation of steel as material in the hydrogen infrastructure.

voestalpine AG

voestalpine-Straße 3

4020 Linz

www.voestalpine.com/stahl

Nina Kieberger

Forschung und Entwicklung Unternehmensbereich Bramme

T +43 (0) 50304 15 0

nina.kieberger@voestalpine.com