Prof Rachael Rothman Interviewed For CNBC’s Sustainable Futures

3rd Feb 2023

UK-HyRES recently had its co-investigator, Professor Rachael Rothman, interviewed by Anmar Frangoul from CNBC’s Sustainable Futures. The article discussed the potential role of different methods of hydrogen production, specifically focusing on green and pink hydrogen.

The production of hydrogen is a topic of great interest due to its potential role in securing a low-carbon future. However, the majority of hydrogen produced today still comes from fossil fuels, with low-emission hydrogen accounting for less than 1% of global hydrogen production in 2021, according to a report from the International Energy Agency.

“It has a lot of potential to help us decarbonise going forwards”

“The first thing to say is that hydrogen doesn’t really exist naturally, so it has to be produced,” said Professor Rothman. “It has a lot of potential to help us decarbonise going forwards, but we need to find low-carbon ways of producing it in the first place.”

Different methods of hydrogen production have been given different colours to differentiate them, with “grey hydrogen” being the most common and produced from natural gas through a process called steam methane reforming, which has a large associated carbon footprint. “Green hydrogen”, on the other hand, is produced using renewables and electrolysis, and “blue hydrogen” refers to the use of natural gas and carbon capture utilisation and storage.

The article also discussed “pink hydrogen”, which is produced using nuclear energy through electrolysis. According to Professor Rothman, “if you split water, you get hydrogen and oxygen, but splitting water takes energy, so what pink hydrogen is about is splitting water using energy that has come from nuclear… the whole system is low carbon, because there’s no carbon in water, but also the energy source is also very low carbon because it’s nuclear.”

Pink hydrogen has some significant backers, including EDF Energy, which is exploring the production and use of hydrogen at its planned 3.2-gigawatt nuclear power station, Sizewell C, in the UK. “At Sizewell C, we are exploring how we can produce and use hydrogen in several ways,” the firm’s website states. “Firstly, it could help lower emissions during construction of the power station, and secondly, once Sizewell C is operational, we hope to use some of the heat it generates (alongside electricity) to make hydrogen more efficiently.”

In conclusion, the article highlights the potential role of pink hydrogen in the decarbonisation of society and its significance as a low-carbon method of hydrogen production. UK-HyRES is committed to supporting and promoting research and innovation in hydrogen production, storage, and usage, and Professor Rothman’s interview serves as a reminder of the importance of finding low-carbon methods of producing hydrogen.

View on the full article on CNBC >>

This article was adapted from the original published on CNBC’s Sustainable Futures Feature by Anmar Frangoul.

REGIONAL ROADSHOWS

WARWICK | 02/02/23

SHEFFIELD | 06/03/23

WESTMINSTER | 17/03/23

During the second phase of the UK-HyRES coordination project, three Regional Roadshows were held to convene leading experts and industrial partners. The objective of these events was to deliberate the challenges and opportunities of the hydrogen energy industry and propose solutions towards achieving the UK’s aim of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

The one-day workshops brought together representatives from universities and various industries across each region, offering a platform for participants to share ideas and collaborate on finding solutions. The events were facilitated by expert facilitators, The Collective, who used the theory of change to drive tangible outcomes. Over 120 participants joined us across the three events, which were interactive and participatory.

PI Professor Tim Mays presents the proposed Hub vision at the Warwick Regional Roadshow 2023.

The discussions at the Roadshow events encompassed a broad range of topics, including the proposed research hub in hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels. One of the key themes was the storage of hydrogen, where participants explored different storage solutions such as compressed hydrogen gas, liquid hydrogen, and solid-state storage. The discussions highlighted the need to develop safe, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly methods for storing hydrogen. Participants also recognised the challenges associated with the high pressure requirements for compressed hydrogen gas and the low temperatures needed for liquid hydrogen, emphasising the need for innovative storage technologies and a deeper understanding of material behaviour.

The role of government policies in promoting the hydrogen energy industry was also deliberated, along with various methods of hydrogen production such as green synthesis, electrolysis, and bioprocesses. The participants evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of each method, emphasising the importance of developing low-cost, scalable, and green hydrogen production methods to make hydrogen energy accessible to a wider range of applications.

The end use of hydrogen was another key discussion topic, where the participants explored its various applications such as aerospace, heavy goods vehicles, agriculture, food production, and power generation. The discussions highlighted the challenges associated with the implementation of these technologies, emphasising the need to develop safe and reliable hydrogen fuel cell technologies and a supportive infrastructure, including hydrogen refuelling stations, to enable widespread deployment of hydrogen energy.

Participant discussions in Church House Westminster – Regional Roadshows 2023.

The workshops also covered cross-cutting themes such as safety, economics, environmental impact, and social acceptability. Participants emphasised the importance of conducting life cycle analyses to understand the environmental impact of hydrogen energy and the role of government policies in promoting sustainable and socially acceptable hydrogen energy solutions. Safety aspects were discussed in Sheffield, where Co-I Prof. Joan Cordiner led the discussion around hydrogen pipelines and the necessary safety considerations. In London, risk perception and arguments around public acceptance were highlighted, with social scientists arguing for the importance of the field to precede the radical changes needed in response to Net Zero.

In Sheffield, fruitful discussions around decarbonising the steel industry took place, where the participants deliberated the challenges of switching from monitoring hydrocarbon-fuelled forges to pure hydrogen-oxygen flames. Similarly, in London, the participants discussed how Glycerol, a useful substance in hydrogen production, can be sourced as waste from the paper industry.

To summarise, the UK-HyRES Regional Roadshow series was a valuable opportunity for experts to engage in meaningful discussions about the challenges and opportunities facing the hydrogen energy industry. The insights, proposals, and networks developed during the workshops will play a crucial role in shaping the future of clean energy and helping the UK achieve its goal of net zero emissions by 2050. The visualisations from Scriberia will follow shortly. We appreciate all the valuable discussions that took place.

Slides from Sheffield and Westminster

Bath PhD student Catherine Butler presented at the GKN Aerospace Global Technology Centre in Bristol on the 16th Jan.

Over the preceding years, The University of Bath and GKN Aerospace have partnered across many research programmes. In an effort to foster further collaboration, students were invited to discuss their research and find further synergies with real world challenges faced across GKN’s portfolio. Catherine discussed solid state hydrogen storage and how her research could lead to new ways forward.

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY -Hydrogen Strategy update to the market: December 2022

December 2022

UK-HyRES is pleased to announce BEIS has released its latest Hydrogen Strategy Update to The Market (December 2022). We have included some of the key details below, but encourage all stakeholders to read the report.

Policy areas covered in this update are:

• hydrogen production
• hydrogen networks and storage
• uses of hydrogen in industry, power, transport and potentially heat
• creating a market: regulatory frameworks and gas blending
• hydrogen sector development covering investment, exports and imports, research and innovation, and the UK Hydrogen Champion
• international leadership in hydrogen, including through bilateral relationships, COP27, the Breakthrough Agenda, Mission Innovation, the Clean Energy Ministerial and the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy

“The Government is committed to developing the UK’s low carbon hydrogen economy: hydrogen is considered critical to delivering energy security and our decarbonisation targets, and presents a significant growth opportunity. It can play a pivotal role in our transition to a future based on renewable and nuclear energy, while ensuring that natural gas used during this transition is from reliable sources including our own North Sea production, and can provide clean energy for use in industry, power, transport, and potentially home heating.

In the UK Hydrogen Strategy we included the commitment to regularly summarise our policy development to keep industry apprised. Since publication of the Hydrogen Strategy we have doubled our low carbon hydrogen production capacity ambition to up to 10GW by 2030 (with at least half from electrolytic hydrogen) in the British Energy Security Strategy, provided greater clarity to investors through the Hydrogen Investment Package, and made substantial policy and funding strides across the hydrogen value chain. We summarised these ambitions, commitments and actions in the first Hydrogen Strategy update to the market in July 2022. This was published alongside other key elements of our policy support, which also included the launch of the first Electrolytic Hydrogen Allocation Round – offering joint Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF) and Hydrogen Production Business Model (HPBM) support – and our Hydrogen Sector Development Action Plan, and the appointment of a UK Hydrogen Champion. Hydrogen is closely integrated into Government’s wider policy development on energy security and the energy transition both domestically and internationally, with hydrogen policy previously announced through the Net Zero Strategy and the Breakthrough Agenda at COP26.

This December 2022 Hydrogen Strategy update to the market summarises the extensive activity across Government since July to develop new hydrogen policy at pace and to design and deliver funding support. This includes announcements on shortlisted hydrogen projects in the Cluster Sequencing Process, the launch of a consultation on hydrogen transport and storage (T&S) infrastructure, the publication of the HPBM Heads of Terms, and an update on the ongoing first Electrolytic Hydrogen Allocation Round. The hydrogen policy development presented here underlines the Government’s approach to promote every aspect of the UK hydrogen economy in collaboration with industry, investors and international partners to create a strong, globally competitive UK hydrogen sector.”

Quoting the initial key points aligned to UK-HyRES

• Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre to support BEIS in ongoing work to understand the critical minerals requirements for a hydrogen economy. This is an area that has been discussed extensively in UK-HyRES workshops.
• BEIS have been reviewing non-economic regulatory issues and working with regulators through the Regulators Forum to understand and start delivering priority work.
• BEIS continue to target a policy decision in 2023 on whether to allow up to 20% hydrogen blending (by volume) in GB gas distribution networks…
• The first meeting of the hydrogen T&S infrastructure Working Group under the Hydrogen Advisory Council took place on 10 October 2022…
• The UK’s Hydrogen Champion, Jane Toogood, was appointed in July 2022…
• HSE is participating in work by the International Energy Agency Hydrogen
  Technology Collaboration Programme on Safety and Regulations, Codes and Standards for Large Scale Hydrogen Energy Applications.

VIEW & DOWNLOAD THE Hydrogen Strategy update to the market DOCUMENT HERE >

Since UK-HyRES began its coordination project, we have been working to establish the key players in the UK hydrogen economy. This spans smaller supply chain businesses, as well as larger industry. We have had fantastic engagement through our workshops, on our website, and through various offline conversations and fact finding exercises. As we develop the details of the Hub for Research Challenges in Hydrogen and Alternative Liquid Fuels and the projects within, we want to connect industrial priorities with the UK’s talented academic research community.

Below, we have developed a map of the companies and consortia we are aware of, either through their engagement with the HyRES project or through or our own background research.

You can also see the details of all confirmed prospective Co-Investigators, the Hub Co-Directors Prof. Rachael Rothman and Prof. Shanwen Tao, and Hub Director Prof. Tim Mays. We have included only publicly available information in the map. If you are interested in talking with an academic or company listed, please get in touch and we will see if we can make the connection.

Industry Regional Roadshows Early 2023

We are holding interactive industry roadshows across the UK and are especially interested in companies (of all sizes, including their supply chains) attending to share and discuss research challenges in hydrogen and alternative liquids fuels that meet their needs. This is with a view to the co-creation of research projects with academics that will be part of the UK-HyRES Research Hub that is due to start in Q2 2023. You can see the industry-focussed Regional Roadshow venues on the map below, indicated by a red star, dates and details will be available shortly. You can also see the typical catchment areas for each regional event, attendees are however free to choose which events you attend.

Want To Be Included On The Map?

If you are an organisation, company or consortia, and would like to be listed, please send the details through our contact us page. Further functionality will be added in the coming weeks. In the meantime, thank you, community engagement and co-creation of projects is essential to unlocking the barriers to a low carbon hydrogen economy.

Interactive Hydrogen and Alternative Liquid Fuels Industry Map

Two new calls have been announced that we encourage our community to look at!

The first is the Horizon Europe funding call: Horizon Europe is an EU research and innovation programme. It has a budget of €95.5 billion and runs until 2027. If you’re a UK-based researcher or innovator, you can apply to most Horizon Europe funding opportunities on the same terms as EU-based applicants, and on the 31st Jan they are holding a Consortia Building Event for potential applicants.

The second is that a pre-announcement of the UKRI interdisciplinary responsive mode scheme is now live with the full call due to be launched imminently. View the call here!

In the last ever H2FC Supergen Hub annual assembly, before they hand the hydrogen energy baton over to the two new £25m successor programmes – this project, UK HyRES and also, UK HiACT – the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell (H2FC) Supergen Hub brought together leading lights and rising stars for a fully cross-sector focus on Moving Ah₂ead with Hydrogen. Held at The Science Museum, PI Tim Mays gave a presentation that discussed the work done in the coordinator project to date and our exciting plans for the future of the Hub. You can download the slide deck here.

Have you read the latest independent review of the UK’s Net Zero mission by the Rt Hon Chris Skidmore? We were heartened to see so many mentions of hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels and the part they will play in Mission Zero. Definitely worth a read and you can access it here!

We’ve been sharing our research at the University of Bath on novel materials for hydrogen storage as part of a new digital series from IOM3 (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining) and Content with Purpose.  Find out how #MaterialChange is helping to address the #ClimateCrisis, achieve #NetZero targets and accelerate the #CircularEconomy.

See the LinkedIn post and read more on the IOM3 website. You can also see the video here!

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.