On Thursday 3 November 2022 UK-HyRES Principal Investigator Prof Tim Mays gave an invited, keynote talk “Connecting Basic Research on Hydrogen with Industry and Policy” at the re-scheduled Scottish Policy Conference “Developing the Hydrogen Economy in Scotland”, read more at https://www.scotlandpolicyconferences.co.uk/conference/SPC-Hydrogen-22.
The UK-HyRES team is delighted to confirm that our proposal to the EPSRC for a national Hub for Research Challenges in Hydrogen and Alternative Liquid Fuels was submitted yesterday. There will now be a validation and review process managed by the EPSRC. We hope that will lead to a positive outcome. In the meantime, our work on the UK-HyRES Co-ordinator project will continue until the end of next April. Please keep an eye out on this website for further UK-HyRES news, including about events that we will be holding over the next six months. Thank you.
Prof Tim Mays, UK-HyRES Principal Investigator, University of Bath
Research Challenge online showcase
21st October 2022
Showcase Objective
To present the structure of the hub and co-develop the details of the projects within it.
On Friday the 21st October we held our rescheduled interactive and participatory workshop. There was an amazing response from across the hydrogen community with over 90 participants. Facilitated by The Collective, we first heard from Prof Tim Mays, who welcomed all attendees, before Prof Rachael Rothman introduced our vision for the Hub.
Dr Derek Craig, delivered the opening address at the event. Derek is Deputy Director Cross-Council Programmes within the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Derek is responsible for strategic leadership and oversight of EPSRC’s environmental sustainability and decarbonisation research and innovation agenda working closely with colleagues across UKRI and the external academic, business and policy communities. He set out EPSRCs vision and the funding landscape, as well as the objectives of EPSRC. This included the imperative to create added value to the UK industrial strategy, widely collaborate and to champion EPSRCs place-based agenda.
Through four different breakout sessions, we collectively examined some of the research challenges identified through our previous workshops. Primers were delivered, that discussed the technical theme challenges, from the UK-HyRES investigators, Tim Mays, Rachael Rothman and Shanwen Tao. These challenges are highlighted in the attached slide deck an in the image below. While they represent priorities, these lists are by no means exhaustive. If there are more ideas, thoughts, or key priorities that weren’t discussed, please do get in touch and speak to one of the team.
Thanks to all that attended, your participation and engagement is vital to allow us to shape a successful hub.
Read more about the Storage workshop >>
Appointment of Dr Marcus Newborough, CEng FEI, FREng as a Visiting Professor
10th October 2022
The University of Bath’s Department of Chemical Engineering is delighted to announce that Marcus Newborough, Development Director, ITM Power PLC (https://itm-power.com) will be appointed as a Visiting Professor from 1 November 2022. He will continue to work closely with Professor Tim Mays in the Department, and other colleagues on campus, with a focus on sustainable hydrogen engineering. This will include supporting Tim in building a national EPSRC Hub for Research in Hydrogen and Alternative Liquid Fuels (UK-HyRES, https://ukhyres.co.uk) to be based at the University.
Notes
- Following his PhD at Cranfield Institute of Technology in 1987 Marcus Newborough has had a successful career in sustainable engineering in industry and as an academic. He joined ITM in 2006 and was appointed to his current senior role at the company in 2009. Marcus is a Chartered Engineer (CEng, 1991), Fellow of the Energy Institute (FEI, 2010) and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng, 2013).
- ITM is a world-leading company in the manufacture of proton-exchange membrane (PEM) units to produce green hydrogen via water electrolysis for low carbon electricity, heat and mobility and for industrial decarbonisation. The company floated on the Alternative Investment Market in 2004 becoming the first hydrogen company to be publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The LSE has also granted the company a Green Economy Mark. In August 2021 the Business Secretary opened ITM’s “Giga Factory” in Sheffield (the world’s largest PEM electrolyser plant) and at the same event launched the UK’s Hydrogen Strategy (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-hydrogen-strategy).
Register for a free webinar, “Climate Change: Catastrophe or Opportunity?”, held on October 4th 16:30 -17:30. The Rt Hon Lord Deben will talk mainly about his role as Chair of the Climate Change Committee but also about his career journey to this. The interviewer will be Tim Mays who is Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering at Bath, UK-HyRES PI, and Director of the University’s very well-established Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (I-SEE), which will be the host at Bath for the seminar. Read more about the event and register for free.
Prof Tim Mays (UK-HyRES PI) gave an invited, keynote presentation on progress on UK-HyRES at the online Hydrogen Fuelled Transport Conference organised by Network-H2 on 21/9/22. Read more about the event.
Prof Tim Mays (UK-HyRES PI) was due to give an invited, keynote presentation Connecting basic hydrogen research with industry and policy at the Scotland Policy Conference Developing the hydrogen economy in Scotland on 15/9/22. However, the event was cancelled after the Queen’s passing. The organisers hope to re-schedule. Read more about the Scotland policy conference.
In light of the Queen’s recent passing, UKRI has advised that we should cancel the UK-HyRES Showcase at the University of Warwick planned for Thursday 15 September 2022. The inconvenience that this may cause is regrettable. We hope to be able to reschedule the Showcase for later in the year. We will continue to keep the UK’s Hydrogen and Alternative Liquid Fuels research community informed of developments, mainly via the project’s website: https://ukhyres.co.uk
Thank you, Prof Tim Mays, UK-HyRES PI, University of Bath
THE ROLE OF HYDROGEN IN A NET ZERO ENERGY SYSTEM | NEPC – RAENG
2nd September 2022
The National Engineering Policy Centre and Royal Academy of Engineering has published an excellent report on “The role of hydrogen in a net zero energy system”. This is vital reading for all members of the hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels community as we move closer to the net zero transition.
Hydrogen can carry energy to many hard-to-decarbonise sectors with no greenhouse gas emissions at the point of use, giving hydrogen a valuable role in a net zero energy system.
However, as the successful scale up of low-carbon hydrogen production and end-uses poses many challenges and is dependent on decisions made in other parts of the energy system, a pragmatic and carefully managed delivery is vital to achieve emission reductions and reap the benefits that hydrogen can provide.
This report from the National Engineering Policy Centre explores:
- Hydrogen’s value as an energy vector
- Potential roles of hydrogen in a net zero energy system
- Low-carbon hydrogen production methods
- Policy recommendations for government to ensure the benefits of hydrogen for a net zero energy system are realised.
UKRI EPSRC HYDROGEN CALL LAUNCHED TO ESTABLISH HYDROGEN & ALF RESEARCH HUB
2nd September 2022
On the 01/09/22 UKRI and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council opened the second stage call of a two-step process for The Coordinator for Research Challenges in Hydrogen and Alternative Liquid Fuels.
The UK-HyRES project was initially funded by UKRI for six months from 1 April 2022. UK-HyRES engaged nationally with academic, industrial and policy stakeholders to discuss and identify research challenges the solutions to which will accelerate the deployment of sustainable H&ALF technologies to help the country achieve its legally binding net zero carbon emissions target by 2050 and hence contribute to mitigating disastrous global heating.
One of the main engagement routes was via facilitated workshops which were promoted widely in H&ALF and associated communities in the UK. The outcomes from these workshops will inform and shape the development of a UKRI Hub for research challenges in H&ALFs to start in spring 2023.
This call represents the second stage of the invite only application process, with the call document now open, we urge interested community members to give it a read.
VIEW & DOWNLOAD THE CALL DOCUMENT HERE >
Quoting some of the key criteria in the call:
Hub for research challenges in hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels
This hub will provide a focus for the UK research community, working in close partnership with businesses, governments, and administrations throughout the UK to tackle research challenges that underpin the hydrogen production, storage and distribution parts of the hydrogen value chain.
This hub will discover and develop cross-cutting solutions to the cross-sector challenges relating to hydrogen and hydrogen-based low carbon liquid fuels. Examples include, but are not limited to, research challenges such as:
- green hydrogen production
- production of low carbon liquid forms of hydrogen
- hydrogen storage
- materials
- utilisation
- cost
- safety
- environmental impact
- public perception and engagement.
They may also seek to address issues that will impact upon the hydrogen end-use sectors. These may include, but are not limited to, challenges associated with:
- lowering costs of hydrogen technologies
- increasing efficiencies of technological systems
- materials science and engineering
- hydrogen safety.