The Health and Safety Workshop on the use of Hydrogen in High Temperature Process Industries, held on 22nd October in Sheffield, was a great success.

Dr. Neil Lowrie organised the event, including timely delegate registration, the event’s publication on LinkedIn and other platforms, logistics and the smooth running of the sessions. Joan proposed the idea of having a workshop with industrial partners to strengthen our industrial networks and communicate the aims of the UK-HyRES Hub with industrial stakeholders.

We brought together a fantastic group of process safety experts, practitioners, and leaders from the glass, metals, ceramics, and brick manufacturing industries.

Joan opened the event with a welcome address, followed by a brief overview of the UK-HyRES, its structure, hub members, researchers and the aims of each theme.  Attendees enjoyed the following agenda:

  • 10:00 Prof. Joan Cordiner, UK-HyRes: Welcome and introduction to the workshop
  • 10:15 Kate Jeffrey,  Health and Safety Executive: Hydrogen safety
  • 10:30 Dr Harmanpreet Singh, UK-HyRES: Gaps in health and safety identified in the literature
  • 10:45 Break into round table discussion groups: From your or your customer’s perspective, what are the gaps in the existing standards?
  • 11:15 Feedback to the room
  • 11:30 Break into round table discussion groups: What hydrogen projects are you (or your customers) currently working on, and what H&S challenges have you encountered?
  • 12:00 Feedback to the room
  • 12:15 Lunch & networking
  • 13:00 Clare Dunkerley, Otto Simon: Risk-based approach to the design and build of hydrogen infrastructure
  • 13:15 Break into round table discussion groups: What technological knowledge gaps (related to health and safety) does your (or your customer’s) industry face?
  • 13:45 Feedback to the room
  • 14:00 Break into round table discussion groups: Based on past experience, what are the key things that companies considering the use of hydrogen should know, or avoid doing? e.g useful standards, sources of information, lessons learned
  • 14:30 Feedback to the room
  • 14:45 Final thoughts and close

The energy and collaboration in the room were outstanding. Together, we:

  • Captured real-world H&S challenges from active hydrogen projects.
  • Identified key priorities to shape the future research agenda.
  • Strengthened the hydrogen safety network by connecting specialists with end-users.
  • Shared our vision to provide them and the greater community a vital resource, the “Hydrogen Safety Toolkit”, to accelerate the safe deployment of hydrogen.

A huge thanks to all our delegates for their active participation and invaluable insights. The discussions have provided a clear path forward for supporting the industry’s transition to hydrogen. The event was closed with a token of thanks to all the participants for their time and effort in making this event successful.