First boilers installed for hydrogen heating demo

The first hydrogen boilers have been installed in demonstration houses built as part of a mock-up of a hydrogen gas grid in Northumberland.

The homes have been constructed for the HyStreet project at DNV GL’s test site in Spadeadam and will be supplied by a dummy distribution network installed by Northern Gas Networks (NGN).

The combi boilers were fitted by the manufacturers Baxi Heating and Worcester Bosch, which developed the devices as part of Hy4Heat – the government funded programme to support the development of domestic hydrogen appliances.

Worcester Bosch chief executive Carl Arntzen said: “It is fantastic to see our prototype hydrogen boiler running successfully at this demonstration site.  The boiler has operated seamlessly in its first month of operation and continues to provide both heating and hot water.

“It proves that hydrogen gas has great potential as a zero-carbon alternative to natural gas for heating and hot water in the UK and beyond.  These initial tests are incredibly encouraging and will hopefully give key decision makers confidence to deploy hydrogen gas as a fuel for the future.”

The HyStreet trial is one strand of the wider H21 programme led Northern Gas Networks, which aims to establish supporting evidence for the conversion of existing gas networks to run on hydrogen and also involves the three other gas distribution networks – Cadent, SGN and Wales and West Utilities – as well as National Grid.

In August, National Grid proposed to construct a £10 million dummy hydrogen transmission network at Spadeadam and connect it to the distribution network built by NGN.

Tim Harwood, Northern Gas Networks’ project director for H21, said: “Seeing the boilers in situ at Spadeadam is an exciting step in the journey to realising our goal of a gas network transporting 100 per cent hydrogen to customers.

“The hydrogen boiler looks and feels just like the natural gas version we all have today and is just as user-friendly, showing that a transition could cause minimal disruption to customers.”

Dan Allason, Head of Research and Innovation, at DNV GL’s Spadeadam Research and Testing, said: “Eight out of ten homes in the UK use a gas boiler to heat their homes and provide hot water and replacing all gas boilers with electric alternatives could be extremely costly.

“Both of the boiler manufacturers have developed options with their hydrogen ready prototypes to assist the switch to a lower carbon alternative. Having these fitted to the HyStreet demonstration project at Spadeadam gives gravitas to the proof of concept and public acceptability of appliances such as these.”