Hydrogen is a hot technology

David Hart lauds the growing role of hydrogen in the silent decarbonisation revolution.

UK CO2 emissions are falling and the country is on track to meet its short-term targets, yet the government is still short of policies to hit the long-term goal of cutting emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

At the moment UK decarbonisation policy tends not to consider the country’s energy needs as a whole; treating heating, power and transport separately rather than as one interconnected system. There is now broad consensus that wholesale change is needed, which requires political will as well as high-profile pilot projects demonstrating carbon-free alternatives, including wind, wave, solar and increasingly hydrogen. The latter is starting to be seen as essential in hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as cement, steelmaking and heat; and of great importance in heavy-duty transport.

With the decarbonisation race now on, serious consideration is being given to hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas in boilers as well as a power source for fuel cells. In the first UK trial of its kind, the HyDeploy project aims to add hydrogen (up to 20 per cent by volume) to an existing natural gas network to reduce CO2 emissions from home cooking and heating without altering the performance of customer appliances.

In Orkney, the Surf n Turf project is generating hydrogen from tidal and wind energy to overcome electricity grid limitations and make better use of renewable sources. The energy produced is fed into a purpose-built storage trailer and transported to Kirkwall, where the hydrogen is converted into electricity, via fuel cell. The excess energy produced by Orkney’s wind turbines has given engineers a rare opportunity to create and store hydrogen fuel on a large scale.

Building on the foundations laid by Surf n Turf, the European-funded Big Hit project was launched last year. It will demonstrate the use of hydrogen as a flexible local energy store and vector, transporting hydrogen by tube trailer to the Orkney mainland, where it will be used for auxiliary power and to heat ferries in Kirkwall harbour as well as fuelling a fleet of range-extended light vehicles, and heating buildings in the area.

As fuel cell costs come down, we are seeing a tangible interest in deployment, scale-up and sustainable business propositions via transport and stationary application. Governments are indicating that fuel cells are a genuine contender in driving economic and industrial growth – and the clear environmental benefits simply cannot be overlooked.

Momentum behind the decarbonisation revolution is building. Let’s hope it’s fast enough.