https://phys.org/news/2018-07-austrians-power-steel-industry-hydrogen.html

The ongoing Horizon 2020 project H2Future – a Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) flagship project – has set the ambitious target of generating 'green' hydrogen that is specifically intended for the steel and iron manufacturing industry. The International Energy Agency estimates that current operations in this area are responsible for around 7 percent of total global CO2 emissions.Austria's largest electricity company VERBUND has teamed up with five other partners – voestalpine, APG, K1-MET, ECN (along with TNO) and Siemens – to construct a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis system at voestalpine's steel mill in Linz, Austria. A joint press release notes that the PEM system is capable of generating up to 6 MW of power and is planned to be fully operational in the second quarter of 2019.

Since hydrogen does not occur naturally in sufficient quantities, electricity is directly applied to water (H2O) to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The system is comprised of a positively charged anode and a negatively charged cathode which are separated by a membrane. Given that the membrane is a proton exchange one, hydrogen protons (H+) can permeate through the membrane, without mixing with other gaseous products. The protons combine with free electrons in the cathode and form hydrogen, which can then be stored and used later. Using its reported 6 MW capacity, the PEM electrolysis system will ideally generate 1 200 cubic metres of hydrogen per hour, with the ultimate target being an electricity-to-hydrogen efficiency of 80 percent.