Hydrogen blending trial kicks off at Keele University

Hydrogen is now being injected into the gas grid at Keele University following the start of a new trial led by Cadent.

The fuel is being blended with natural gas at rates of up to 20 per cent by volume. Staying below this level allows customers to continue using their existing gas appliances.

Keele University was selected as the location due its ownership of a private gas network that could be safely isolated from the rest of the grid. The trial was preceded by laboratory tests on a range of gas appliances as well as gas safety checks on homes and buildings connected to the network.

The hydrogen is being produced using an electrolyser supplied by ITM Power.

The HyDeploy project secured £6.8 million of funding in the 2016 round of Ofgem’s annual Network Innovation Competition. Cadent and its main partner Northern Gas Networks are each contributing an extra £760,000.

The other partners include the consultancy Progressive Energy as well as the Health and Safety Executive, which in 2018 granted an exemption from the UK’s current limit on hydrogen injections of 0.1 per cent.

“It is impossible to overstate the importance of this trial to the UK – this is the first ever practical demonstration of hydrogen in a modern gas network in this country,” said Cadent chief safety and strategy officer Ed Syson.

“Hydrogen can help us tackle one of the most difficult sources of carbon emissions – heat. This trial could pave the way for a wider roll out of hydrogen blending, enabling consumers to cut carbon emissions without changing anything that they do.

“HyDeploy could also prove to be the launchpad for a wider hydrogen economy, fuelling industry and transport, bringing new jobs and making Britain a world-leader in this technology.”

Mark Omerod, deputy vice chancellor and provost at Keele University, added: “HyDeploy is a pioneering landmark national demonstration project, using our campus as a genuine ‘living laboratory’ for low carbon and energy efficient technologies.

“HyDeploy has the potential to be hugely impactful and lead to a step change in the reduction of carbon emissions associated with heat.”

It is far from the first time UK homes have been heated with hydrogen, which was a major component (up to 60 per cent) of the ‘town gas’ that was widely used throughout Britain prior to the discovery of natural gas fields in the North Sea in the 1960s.

Cadent secured £13.3 million of funding in the 2018 Network Innovation Competition for its follow-up project HyDeploy2, which will trial hydrogen blending on public gas networks serving two clusters of 700 representative households in the North East and North West regions of England.