Steel industry is a major source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions due to the use of coal.
One of the major challenges of the energy transition is the production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources on a large industrial scale.
One key to this is the flexible production of hydrogen based on the so-called PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolysis. It enables the necessary balancing of the fluctuations in energy demand and forms the foundation for the seasonal storage of renewable energy. One of the difficulties is the real-time, highly precise, and reliable gas analysis needed for optimization of production parameters to guarantee high gas quality.
The project H2lytics focuses on new and innovative solutions for flexible hydrogen production. At the heart of the research project is the interdisciplinary development of a sensor solution based on optical spectroscopy and its integration into the hydrogen test facility. These research activities will form a major contribution for enabling a flexible hydrogen production on an industrial scale. More precisely, a procedure for the accurate and continuous measurement of the hydrogen quality will be developed, which will form the basis for the investigation of methods for the real-time control of the hydrogen production process.
As a result, the project findings should contribute to low-carbon hydrogen production for the steel industry.
The Research Center for Non-Destructive Testing GmbH is member of the UAR Innovation Network and is supported by funding from the Province of Upper Austria and the European Union.