Publications

This study reviews the extant literature on hydrogen production cost forecasts to identify and analyze the historical trend of such forecasts in order to explore the feasibility of wider adoption. Hydrogen is an important energy source that can be used to achieve a carbon-neutral society but the widespread adoption of hydrogen production technologies is hampered by the high costs. The production costs vary depending on the technology employed: gray renewable electrolysis or biomass. The study identifies 174 production cost forecast data points from articles published between 1979 and 2020 and makes a comparative assessment using non-parametric statistical tests. The results show three different cost forecast trends across technologies. First the production cost of gray hydrogen showed an increasing trend until 2015 but started declining after 2015. Second the renewable electrolysis hydrogen cost was the highest of all but has shown a gradual declining trend since 2015. Finally the biomass hydrogen cost has been relatively cheaper up until 2015 after which it became the highest. Renewable electrolysis and biomass hydrogen will be potential candidates (as principal drivers) to reduce CO2 emissions in the future but renewable electrolysis hydrogen is more promising in this regard due to its declining production cost trend. Gray hydrogen can also be an alternative candidate to renewable electrolysis hydrogen because it can be equipped with carbon capture storage (CCS) to produce blue hydrogen although we need to consider additional production costs incurred by the introduction of CCS. The study discusses the technological development and policy implications of the results on hydrogen production costs.

Hydrogen which is expected to be a popular type of next-generation energy is drawing attention as a fuel option for the formation of a low-carbon society. Because hydrogen energy is different in nature from existing energy technologies it is necessary to promote sufficient social recognition and acceptability of the technology for its widespread use. In this study we focused on the effect of initiatives to improve awareness of hydrogen energy technology thereby investigating the acceptability of hydrogen energy to those participating in either several hydrogen energy technology introduction events or professional seminars. According to the survey results participants in the technology introduction events tended to have lower levels of hydrogen and hydrogen energy technology knowledge than did participants in the hydrogen-energy-related seminars but confidence in the technology and acceptability of the installation of hydrogen stations near their own residences tended to be higher. It was suggested that knowledge about hydrogen and technology could lead to improved acceptability through improved levels of trust in the technology. On the other hand social benefits such as those for the environment socioeconomics and energy security have little impact on individual levels of acceptance of new technology.

Bi-directional solid oxide cell systems (Bi-SOC) are being increasingly considered as an electrical energy storage method and consequently as a means to boost the penetration of renewable energy (RE) and to improve the grid flexibility by power-to-gas electrochemical conversion. A major advantage of these systems is that the same SOC stack operates as both energy storage device (SOEC) and energy producing device (SOFC) based on the energy demand and production. SOEC and SOFC systems are now well-optimised as individual systems; this work studies the effect of using the bi-directionality of the SOC at a system level. Since the system performance is highly dependent on the cell-stack operating conditions this study improves the stack parameters for both operation modes. Moreover the year-round cumulative exergy method (CE) is introduced in the solid oxide cell (SOC) context for estimating the system exergy efficiencies. This method is an attempt to obtain more insightful exergy assessments since it takes into account the operational hours of the SOC system in both modes. The CE method therefore helps to predict more accurately the most efficient configuration and operating parameters based on the power production and consumption curves in a year. Variation of operating conditions configurations and SOC parameters show a variation of Bi-SOC system year-round cumulative exergy efficiency from 33% to 73%. The obtained thermodynamic performance shows that the Bi-SOC when feasible can prove to be a highly efficient flexible power plant as well as an energy storage system.

The achievement of a carbon-free emissions economy is one of the main goals to reduce climate change and its negative effects. Scientists and technological improvements have followed this trend improving efficiency and reducing carbon and other compounds that foment climate change. Since the main contributor of these emissions is transportation detaching this sector from fossil fuels is a necessary step towards an environmentally friendly future. Therefore an evaluation of alternative fuels will be needed to find a suitable replacement for traditional fossil-based fuels. In this scenario hydrogen appears as a possible solution. However the existence of the drawbacks associated with the application of H2 -ICE redirects the solution to dual-fuel strategies which consist of mixing different fuels to reduce negative aspects of their separate use while enhancing the benefits. In this work a new combustion modelling approach based on machine learning (ML) modeling is proposed for predicting the burning rate of different mixtures of methane (CH4 ) and hydrogen (H2). Laminar flame speed calculations have been performed to train the ML model finding a faster way to obtain good results in comparison with actual models applied to SI engines in the virtual engine model framework.

We investigate the implications of conducting hydrogen-assisted fatigue crack growth experiments in a hydrogen gas environment (in-situ hydrogen charging) or in air (following exposure to hydrogen gas). The study is conducted on welded 42CrMo4 steel a primary candidate for the future hydrogen transport infrastructure allowing us to additionally gain insight into the differences in behavior between the base steel and the coarse grain heat affected zone. The results reveal significant differences between the two testing approaches and the two weld regions. The differences are particularly remarkable for the comparison of testing methodologies with fatigue crack growth rates being more than one order of magnitude higher over relevant loading regimes when the samples are tested in a hydrogen-containing environment relative to the pre-charged samples. Aided by finite element modelling and microscopy analysis these differences are discussed and rationalized. Independent of the testing approach the heat affected zone showed a higher susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement. Similar microstructural behavior is observed for both testing approaches with the base metal exhibiting martensite lath decohesion while the heat affected zone experienced both martensite lath decohesion and intergranular fracture.

On this weeks episode the team are talking all things hydrogen with Jacob Krogsgaard the CEO of Everfuel a leading supplier of green hydrogen for mobility and industry in Europe. Since its establishment by Nel and a Consortium of parties and investors Everfuel has become a market leader in establishing green hydrogen solutions for mobility in Europe and has recently expanded into areas such as power-to-gas as well. The team catch up with Jacob on Everfuels business model the establishment of the H2Bus Consortium Jacob’s views on how the market for green hydrogen is evolving in Europe and where he sees the greatest early potential for scaling.…..All this and more on the show!

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This paper deals with notch-induced anisotropic fracture behavior of progressively cold drawn pearlitic steels on the basis of their microstructural evolution during manufacturing by multi-step cold drawing that produces slenderizing and orientation of the pearlitic colonies together with densification and orientation of the Fe/Fe3C lamellae reviewing previous research by the author. Results of fracture test using notched specimens of cold drawn pearlitic steels with different degrees of cold drawing (distinct levels of strain hardening) in air and hydrogen environment shows: (i) the key impact of the colonies and lamellae alignment and orientation on notch-induced fracture producing anisotropic fracture behavior with its related crack path deflection (or fracture path deviation); (ii) the necessity of both stress triaxiality (constraint) and microstructural orientation (colonies/lamellae) alignment to produce fracture path deflection; (iii) hydrogen presence (the circumstance) promotes crack path deviation in addition to the inherent microstructural anisotropy created by cold drawing; (iv) the anisotropic fracture path with a stepped profile in cold drawn pearlitic steel consisting of deflections and deviations from the initial transverse fracture path in mode I resembles Masaccio’s Tribute Money painting with its mountains at the background so that the present paper can be considered as a Tribute to Masaccio.

Carbon efficiency of a biomass to liquid process can be increased from ca. 30 to more than 90% by adding hydrogen generated from renewable power. The main reason is that in order to increase the H2/CO ratio after gasification to the value required for Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis the water gas shift reaction step can be avoided; instead a reversed water gas shift reactor is introduced to convert produced CO2 to CO. Process simulations are done for a 46 t/h FT biofuel production unit. Previous results are confirmed and it is shown how the process can be further improved. The effect of changing the H2/CO ratio to the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reactors is studied with the use of three different kinetic models. Keeping the CO conversion in the reactors constant at 55% the volume of the reactors decreases with increasing H2/CO ratio because the reaction rates increase with the partial pressure of hydrogen. Concurrently the production of C5+ products and the consumption of hydrogen increases. However the power required per extra produced liter fuel also increases pointing at optimum conditions at a H2/CO feed ratio significantly lower than 2. The trends are the same for all three kinetic models although one of the models is less sensitive to the hydrogen partial pressure. Finally excess renewable energy can be transformed to FT syncrude with an efficiency of 0.8–0.88 on energy basis.

Green hydrogen is a key solution for reducing CO2 emissions in various industrial applications but high production costs continue to hinder its market penetration today. Better competitiveness is linked to lower investment costs and higher efficiency of the conversion technologies among which polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis seems to be attractive. Although new manufacturing techniques and materials can help achieve these goals a less frequently investigated approach is the optimization of the design point and operating strategy of electrolyzers. This means in particular that the questions of how often a system should be operated and which cell voltage should be applied must be answered. As existing techno-economic models feature gaps which means that these questions cannot be adequately answered a modified model is introduced here. In this model different technical parameters are implemented and correlated to each other in order to simulate the lowest possible levelized cost of hydrogen and extract the required designs and strategies from this. In each case investigated the recommended cost-based cell voltage that should be applied to the system is surprisingly low compared to the assumptions made in previous publications. Depending on the case the cell voltage is in a range between 1.6 V and 1.8 V with an annual operation of 2000e8000 h. The wide range of results clearly indicate how individual the design and operation must be but with efficiency gains of several percent the effect of optimization will be indispensable in the future.

The development of hydrogen energy is an effective solution to the energy and environmental crisis. Hydrogen fuel cells and energy storage cells as hybrid power have broad application prospects in the field of vehicle power. Energy management strategies are key technologies for fuel cell hybrid systems. The traditional optimization strategy is generally based on optimization under the global operating conditions. The purpose of this project is to develop a power allocation optimization method based on real-time load forecasting for fuel cell/lithium battery hybrid electric vehicles which does not depend on specific working conditions or causal control methods. This paper presents an energy-management algorithm based on real-time load forecasting using GRU neural networks to predict load requirements in the short time domain and then the local optimization problem for each predictive domain is solved using a method based on Pontryagin’s minimum principle (PMP). The algorithm adopts the idea of model prediction control (MPC) to transform the global optimization problem into a series of local optimization problems. The simulation results show that the proposed strategy can achieve a good fuel-saving control effect. Compared with the rule-based strategy and equivalent hydrogen consumption strategy (ECMS) the fuel consumption is lower under two typical urban conditions. In the 1800 s driving cycle under WTCL conditions the fuel consumption under the MPC-PMP strategy is 22.4% lower than that based on the ECMS strategy and 10.3% lower than the rules-based strategy. Under CTLT conditions the fuel consumption of the MPC-PMP strategy is 13.12% lower than that of the rule-based strategy and 3.01% lower than the ECMS strategy.

Background: Synthetic fuels based on renewable hydrogen and CO2 are a currently highly discussed piece of the puzzle to defossilize the transport sector. In this regard CO2 can play a positive role in shaping a sustainable future. Large potentials are available as a product of biogas production however occurring in small scales and in thin spatial distributions. This work aims to evaluate suitable synthetic fuel products to be produced at farm sites.<br/>Methods: A thermodynamic analysis to assess the energetic efficiency of synthesis pathways and a qualitative assessment of product handling issues is carried out.<br/>Results: Regarding the technical and safety-related advantages in storage liquid products are the superior option for fuel production at decentralized sites. Due to the economy of scale multi-stage synthesis processes lose economic performance with rising complexity. A method was shown which covers a principle sketch of all necessary reaction separation steps and all compression and heat exchanger units. The figures showed that methanol and butanol are the most suitable candidates in contrast to OME3-5 for implementation in existing transportation and fuel systems. These results were underpin by a Gibbs energy analysis.<br/>Conclusions: As long as safety regulations are met and the farm can guarantee safe storage and transport farm-site production for all intermediates can be realized technically. Ultimately this work points out that the process must be kept as simple as possible favoring methanol production at farm site and its further processing to more complicated fuels in large units for several fuel pathways.

The report was formally launched on 2nd December in Parliament at a panel debate chaired by Lord Whitty and Oliver Colvile and featured representatives from Government and Industry. The report outlines the case for investment by businesses in the energy efficiency of their buildings and operations and highlights how this could help neutralise the threat to profitability posed by increasing energy bills energy price volatility and an increasing reliance on electricity in the commercial sector. The report highlights that business in the UK have the opportunity to not only reduce energy bills but increase their competitiveness and improve worker productivity through better designed buildings.

Climate and energy policies are tools used to steer the development of a sustainable economy supplied by equally sustainable energy systems. End-users should plan their investments accounting for future policies such as incentives for system-oriented consumption emission prices and hydrogen economy to ensure long-term competitiveness. In this work the utilization of variable renewable energy and flexibility potentials in a case study of an an aggregate industry is investigated. An energy concept considering PV and battery expansion flexible production fuel cell electric trucks (FCEV) and hydrogen production is proposed and analysed under expected techno-economic conditions and policies of 2030 using an energy system optimization model. Under this concept total costs and emissions are reduced by 14% and 70% respectively compared to the business-as-usual system. The main benefit of PV investment is the lowered electricity procurement. Flexibility from schedule manufacturing and hydrogen production increases not only the self-consumption of PV generation from 51% to 80% but also the optimal PV capacity by 41%. Despite the expected cost reduction and efficiency improvement FCEV is still not competitive to diesel trucks due to higher investment and fuel prices i.e. its adoption increases the costs by 8%. However this is resolved when hydrogen can be produced from own surplus electricity generation. Our findings reveal synergistic effects between different potentials and the importance of enabling local business models e.g. regional hydrogen production and storage services. The SWOT analysis of the proposed concept shows that the pursuit of sustainability via new technologies entails new opportunities and risks. Lastly end-users and policymakers are advised to plan their investments and supports towards integration of multiple application consumption sectors and infrastructure.

For this episode we speak to Amanda Lyne the Managing Director of ULEMCo and the Chair of the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (UKHFCA). Below are a few links to some of the content discussed on the show and some further background reading.

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Lowering the energy penalty associated with CO2 capture is one of the key issues of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies. The efficiency of carbon capture must be improved to reduce the energy penalty because capture stage is the most energy-consuming stage in the entire process of CCS. Energy-efficient distributed carbon capture in hydrogen production has been demonstrated with an advanced membrane reformer system. We have already developed and operated an advanced 40 Nm3 /h-class membrane reformer system and demonstrated its high hydrogen production efficiency of 81.4% (HHV) which is the world highest efficiency in terms of hydrogen production from natural gas. The system has another significant feature that the CO2 concentration in the reactor off-gas is as high as 70~90% and CO2 can be liquefied and separated easily with little energy loss. An apparatus for CO2 capture was combined to the membrane reformer system and over 90% of CO2 in the reactor off-gas was captured by cryogenic separation. The total energy efficiency of hydrogen production even with CO2 capture was still as high as 78.6% (HHV) which is 510% higher than the conventional reforming technologies. The total CO2 emission from hydrogen production was decreased by 50% with only a 3% energy loss. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to evaluate the effects of the operating conditions of the system on hydrogen production efficiency and CO2 reduction rate.

‘E-fuels’ or ‘synthetic fuels’ are hydrocarbon fuels synthesized from hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) where H2 can be produced via electrolysis of water or steam reforming of natural gas and CO2 is captured from the combustion of a fossil or biogenic source or directly from the atmosphere. E-fuels are drop-in substitutes for fossil fuels but their climate change mitigation benefits are largely unclear. This study evaluates the climate change impacts of e-fuels for aviation by combining different sources of CO2 and H2 up to 2050 under two contrasting policy scenarios. The analysis includes different climate metrics and the effects of near-term climate forcers which are particularly relevant for the aviation sector. Results are produced for European average conditions and for Poland and Norway two countries with high and low emission intensity from their electricity production mix. E-fuels can either have higher or lower climate change impacts than fossil fuels depending on multiple factors such as in order of importance the electricity mix the origin of CO2 the technology for H2 production and the electrolyzer efficiency. The climate benefits are generally higher for e-fuels produced from CO2 of biogenic origin while e-fuels produced from CO2 from direct air capture or fossil fuel combustion require countries with clean electricity to outperform fossil fuels. Synthetic fuels produced from H2 derived from natural gas have higher impacts than fossil fuels even when coupled with carbon capture and storage if CO2 is sourced from fossil fuels or the atmosphere. Climate change impacts of e-fuels improve in the future and they can all achieve considerable climate change mitigation in 2050 relative to fossil jet fuel provided that strict climate policy measures are implemented to decarbonize the electricity sector. Under reduced policy efforts future climate impacts in 2050 of e-fuels from atmospheric or fossil CO2 are still higher than those of fossil jet fuels with an average European electricity mix. This study shows the conditions to maximize the climate change mitigation benefits of e-fuels which essentially depend on progressive decarbonization of the electricity sector and on reduced use of CO2 sourced from fossil fuels.

Research into novel internal combustion engines requires consideration of the diversity in future fuels in an attempt to reduce drastically CO2 emissions from vehicles and promote energy sustainability. Hydrogen has been proposed as a possible fuel for future internal combustion engines and can be produced from renewable sources. Hydrogen’s wide flammability range allows higher engine efficiency than conventional fuels with both reduced toxic emissions and no CO2 gases. Most previous work on hydrogen engines has focused on spark-ignition operation. The current paper presents results from an optical study of controlled autoignition (or homogeneous charge compression ignition) of hydrogen in an engine of latest spark-ignition pentroof combustion chamber geometry with direct injection of hydrogen (100 bar). This was achieved by a combination of inlet air preheating in the range 200–400 C and residual gas recirculated internally by negative valve overlap. Hydrogen fuelling was set to various values of equivalence ratio typically in the range / = 0.40–0.63. Crank-angle resolved flame chemiluminescence images were acquired for a series of consecutive cycles at 1000 RPM in order to calculate in-cylinder rates of flame expansion and motion. Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) of OH was also applied to record more detailed features of the autoignition pattern. Single and double (i.e. ‘split’ per cycle) hydrogen injection strategies were employed in order to identify the effect of mixture preparation on autoignition’s timing and spatial development. An attempt was also made to review relevant in-cylinder phenomena from the limited literature on hydrogen-fuelled spark-ignition optical engines and make comparisons were appropriate.

Policy for Heat: Transforming the System urges Government to implement an ambitious long-term decarbonisation strategy for the heat sector before it’s too late in new inquiry report. The report builds on the work of Part 1 in the Future Heat Series which compared recent decarbonisation pathways and analyses to identify and highlight key policy mechanisms and transitions that are needed in order to decarbonise heat for buildings by 2050. Chaired by Shadow Energy Minister Jonathan Reynolds MP and Conservative MP Rebecca Pow (and also previous MP and member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee Dan Byles MP until he stood down at the General Election) the report is written by cross-party think tank group Carbon Connect. The report was published in Parliament at a cross-party debate on Wednesday 14th October. Sponsored by Energy & Utilities Alliance (EUA) and the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM) the report is the second in a cross-party and independent inquiry series.  

Integrated photovoltaic‐fuel cell (IPVFC) systems amongst other integrated energy generation methodologies are renewable and clean energy technologies that have received diverse re‐ search and development attentions over the last few decades due to their potential applications in a hydrogen economy. This article systematically updates the state‐of‐the‐art of IPVFC systems and provides critical insights into the research and development gaps needed to be filled/addressed to advance these systems towards full commercialization. Design methodologies renewable energy‐ based microgrid and off‐grid applications energy management strategies optimizations and the prospects as self‐sustaining power sources were covered. IPVFC systems could play an important role in the upcoming hydrogen economy since they depend on solar hydrogen which has almost zero emissions during operation. Highlighted herein are the advances as well as the technical challenges to be surmounted to realize numerous potential applications of IPVFC systems in unmanned aerial vehicles hybrid electric vehicles agricultural applications telecommunications desalination synthesis of ammonia boats buildings and distributed microgrid applications.

Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) water electrolysis (WE) produces H2 with a high degree of purity requiring only water and energy. If the energy is provided from renewable energy sources it releases “Green H2” a CO2 -free H2 . PEMWE uses expensive and rare noble metal catalysts which hinder their use at a large industrial scale. In this work the electrocatalytic properties of Transition Metal Phosphides (TMP) catalysts supported on Carbon Black (CB) for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) were investigated as an alternative to Platinum Group Metals. The physico-chemical properties and catalytic performance of the synthesized catalysts were characterized. In the ex situ experiments the 25% FeP/CB 50% FeP/CB and 50% CoP/CB with overpotentials of −156.0 −165.9 and −158.5 mV for a current density of 100 mA cm−2 showed the best catalytic properties thereby progressing to the PEMWE tests. In those tests the 50% FeP/CB required an overpotential of 252 mV for a current density of 10 mA cm−2 quite close to the 220 mV of the Pt catalyst. This work provides a proper approach to the synthesis and characterization of TMP supported on carbon materials for the HER paving the way for further research in order to replace the currently used PGM in PEMWE.

This week's show is the last episode of Season 2! To celebrate we invited our friend and colleague Markus Wilthaner partner at McKinsey & Company to come speak with us. Markus has been a leader in the hydrogen space for the past ten years and has drafted a number of the Hydrogen Council's reports since its founding including the newly released - and highly anticipated - Hydrogen Insights 2021 (link below). In this episode we speak with Markus about the state of the market and the innovation he has seen in the last couple of years that make hydrogen a critical part of the energy transition. We had a lot of fun recording this interview and it was the perfect way to end a fantastic EAH season!

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The team are joined by Dr. Jenifer Baxter of the Institution for Mechanical Engineers (IMECHE). Dr. Baxter is based in the UK and is the Chief Engineer at IMECHE. We often focus heavily on the business cases and development models at the heart of the hydrogen economy here at EAH. On this episode we bring the technical discussion to the forefront and speak with Dr. Baxter about the technical advantages and the challenges that hydrogen presents as an essential part of the path to decarbonizing the future. The team's conversation is a can't miss exploration of a wide range of potential applications for hydrogen technologies that brings a new and essential perspective to the podcast. Don't miss out on EAH's newest episode where we get the engineer's perspective on the future of hydrogen!

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How do we get green hydrogen (and green ammonia) production to scale and make it cost competitive? It's a great question and we ask it all the time on the show. Well Alicia Eastman Co-founder & Managing Director of InterContinental Energy (ICE) may be one of the best authorities in the world on this topic and she joins us on this episode of EAH to tell the team all about her and ICE's work developing the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH). Located in Western Australia the AREH when completed will be the largest renewable energy project by total generation capacity on the planet. At 26 GW it surpasses even the likes of the Three Gorges Dam and will act as a central production and distribution point for huge quantities of clean hydrogen and ammonia for offtakers and customers across APAC and beyond. The AREH is a truly massive project that has global implications for the global energy landscape of the future.

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Microgrids can be regarded as a promising solution by which to increase the resilience of power systems in an energy paradigm based on renewable generation. Their main advantage is their ability to work as islanded systems under power grid outage conditions. Microgrids are usually integrated into electrical markets whose schedules are carried out according to economic aspects while resilience criteria are ignored. This paper shows the development of a resilience-oriented optimization for microgrids with hybrid Energy Storage System (ESS) which is validated via numerical simulations. A hybrid ESS composed of hydrogen and batteries is therefore considered with the objective of improving the autonomy of the microgrid while achieving a rapid transition response. The control problem is formulated using Stochastic Model Predictive Control (SMPC) techniques in order to take into account possible transitions between grid-connected and islanded modes at all the sample instants of the schedule horizon (SH). The control problem is developed by considering a healthy operation of the hybrid ESS thus avoiding degradation issues. The plant is modeled using the Mixed Logic Dynamic (MLD) framework owing to the presence of logic and dynamic control variables.

On this week's show we speak with Trevor Best CEO of Syzygy Plasmonics a Houston area startup who is a pioneer in the field of photocatalytic based hydrogen production. The company has recently closed its series A funding round. We discuss with Trevor the potential applications of the Syzygy approach and where they are aiming to engage the market first as well as his view of the evolution of the hydrogen market today. All this and more on the show!

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Blending hydrogen into the gas grid could be an important stepping stone during the transition to a sustainable net zero system. In particular it may: provide a significant and reliable source of demand for hydrogen producers supporting the investment case for hydrogen; provide learnings and incremental change towards what could potentially become a 100% hydrogen grid; and immediately decarbonise a portion of the gas flowing through the grid. Technical questions relating to hydrogen blending are being taken forward by the industry (e.g. through the HyDeploy project in relation to the maximum potential blend of hydrogen that can be accommodated without end user appliances needing to be altered or replaced). But if blending is to take place changes to commercial arrangements will be necessary as today these assume a relatively uniform gas quality. In particular the commercial framework will need to ensure that limits on the percentage of hydrogen that can safely be blended (currently expected to be around 20% by volume) are not exceeded. We have been commissioned by Cadent to undertake a Network Innovation Allowance (NIA) project to identify the changes required to the gas commercial framework that will enable hydrogen blending in the GB gas grid and to set out a roadmap for how these can be delivered. This report sets out our recommendations.

Water electrolysis for hydrogen production has received increasing attention especially for accumulating renewable energy. Here we comprehensively reviewed all water electrolysis research areas through computational analysis using a citation network to objectively detect emerging technologies and provide interdisciplinary data for forecasting trends. The results show that all research areas increase their publication counts per year and the following two areas are particularly increasing in terms of number of publications: “microbial electrolysis” and “catalysts in an alkaline water electrolyzer (AWE) and in a polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyzer (PEME).”. Other research areas such as AWE and PEME systems solid oxide electrolysis and the whole renewable energy system have recently received several review papers although papers that focus on specific technologies and are cited frequently have not been published within the citation network. This indicates that these areas receive attention but there are no novel technologies that are the center of the citation network. Emerging technologies detected within these research areas are presented in this review. Furthermore a comparison with fuel cell research is conducted because water electrolysis is the reverse reaction to fuel cells and similar technologies are employed in both areas. Technologies that are not transferred between fuel cells and water electrolysis are introduced and future water electrolysis trends are discussed.

In response to the objective of fully attaining carbon neutrality by 2060 people from all walks of life are pursuing low-carbon transformation. Due to the high water cut in the middle and late phases of development the oilfield’s energy consumption will be quite high and the rise in energy consumption will lead to an increase in carbon emission at the same time. As a result the traditional energy model is incapable of meeting the energy consumption requirement of high water cut oilfields in their middle and later phases of development. The present wind hydrogen coupling energy system was researched and coupled with the classic dispersed oilfield energy system to produce energy for the oilfields in this study. This study compares four future energy system models to existing ones computes the energy cost and net present value of an oilfield in Northwest China and proposes a set of economic evaluation tools for oilfield energy systems. The study’s findings indicate that scenario four provides the most economic and environmental benefits. This scenario effectively addresses the issue of high energy consumption associated with aging oilfields at this point significantly reduces carbon emissions absorbs renewable energy locally and reduces the burden on the power grid system. Finally sensitivity analysis is utilized to determine the effect of wind speed electricity cost and oilfield gas output on the system’s economic performance. The results indicate that the system developed in this study can be applied to other oilfields.

The EAH Team takes a break from standard format on this special episode of Everything About Hydrogen to discuss some of the geopolitical factors and considerations driving the evolution of global hydrogen markets.

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To achieve the Net-Zero Emissions goal by 2050 a major upscale in green hydrogen needs to be achieved; this will also facilitate use of renewable electricity as a source of decarbonised fuel in hard-to-abate sectors such as industry and transport. Nearly 80% of the world’s offshore wind resource is in waters deeper than 60 m where bottom-fixed wind turbines are not feasible. This creates a significant opportunity to couple the high capacity factor floating offshore wind and green hydrogen. In this paper we consider dedicated large-scale floating offshore wind farms for hydrogen production with three coupling typologies; (i) centralised onshore electrolysis (ii) decentralised offshore electrolysis and (iii) centralised offshore electrolysis. The typology design is based on variables including for: electrolyser technology; floating wind platform; and energy transmission vector (electrical power or offshore hydrogen pipelines). Offshore hydrogen pipelines are assessed as economical for large and distant farms. The decentralised offshore typology employing a semi-submersible platform could accommodate a proton exchange membrane electrolyser on deck; this would negate the need for an additional separate structure or hydrogen export compression and enhance dynamic operational ability. It is flexible; if one electrolyser (or turbine) fails hydrogen production can easily continue on the other turbines. It also facilities flexibility in further expansion as it is very much a modular system. Alternatively less complexity is associated with the centralised offshore typology which may employ the electrolysis facility on a separate offshore platform and be associated with a farm of spar-buoy platforms in significant water depth locations.

On today's show the EAH team will be joined by Brendan Norman to talk about deployment of sustainable FCEV technologies across many different segments of the transport sector and utility vehicles. Brendan is the CEO of H2X a new vehicle manufacturing company based in Sydney with a manufacturing facility in Port Kembla will deliver its first hydrogen FCEVs to market beginning in 2022 before expanding its vehicle offerings in subsequent years. Brendan joined the EAH team via SquadCast from Kuala Lumpur to talk fuel cells with us and you don't want to miss the excellent discussion that we had on this week's episode.

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Over the past decade energy demand has witnessed a drastic increase mainly due to huge development in the industry sector and growing populations. This has led to the global utilization of renewable energy resources and technologies to meet this high demand as fossil fuels are bound to end and are causing harm to the environment. Solar PV (photovoltaic) systems are a renewable energy technology that allows the utilization of solar energy directly from the sun to meet electricity demands. Solar PV has the potential to create a reliable clean and stable energy systems for the future. This paper discusses the different types and generations of solar PV technologies available as well as several important applications of solar PV systems which are “Large-Scale Solar PV” “Residential Solar PV” “Green Hydrogen” “Water Desalination” and “Transportation”. This paper also provides research on the number of solar papers and their applications that relate to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the years between 2011 and 2021. A total of 126513 papers were analyzed. The results show that 72% of these papers are within SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. This shows that there is a lack of research in solar energy regarding the SDGs especially SDG 1: No Poverty SDG 4: Quality Education SDG 5: Gender Equality SDG 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure SDG 10: Reduced Inequality and SDG 16: Peace Justice and Strong Institutions. More research is needed in these fields to create a sustainable world with solar PV technologies.

Hydrogen can be used to enable decarbonisation of challenging applications such as provision of heat and as a fuel for heavy transport. The UK has set out a strategy for developing a new low carbon hydrogen sector by 2030. Underground storage will be a key component of any regional or national hydrogen network because of the variability of both supply and demand across different end-use applications. For storage of pure hydrogen salt caverns currently remain the only commercially proven subsurface storage technology implemented at scale. A new network of hydrogen storage caverns will therefore be required to service a low carbon hydrogen network. To facilitate planning for such systems this study presents a modelling approach used to evaluate the UK's theoretical hydrogen storage capacity in new salt caverns in bedded rock salt. The findings suggest an upper bound potential for hydrogen storage exceeding 64 million tonnes providing 2150 TWh of storage capacity distributed in three discrete salt basins in the UK. The modelled cavern capacity has been interrogated to identify the practical inter-seasonal storage capacity suitable for integration in a hydrogen transmission system. Depending on cavern spacing a peak load deliverability of between 957 and 1876 GW is technically possible with over 70% of the potential found in the East Yorkshire and Humber region. The range of geologic uncertainty affecting the estimates is approximately ±36%. In principle the peak domestic heating demand of approximately 170 GW across the UK can be met using the hydrogen withdrawn from caverns alone albeit in practice the storage potential is unevenly distributed. The analysis indicates that the availability of salt cavern storage potential does not present a limiting constraint for the development of a low-carbon hydrogen network in the UK. The general framework presented in this paper can be applied to other regions to estimate region-specific hydrogen storage potential in salt caverns.

2020 has been a year for the history books! Some good most of it not so good; but 2020 has been a boom year for the future of hydrogen technologies. Patrick Chris and Andrew do their level best on this episode to talk about all the stories and the highlights of 2020 in under 50 minutes. Have a listen and let us know if we missed anything in our penultimate episode of 2020!

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Though Power-to-X pathways primarily Power-to-Liquids attract interest as solutions for decarbonising parts of the transport sector that are not suitable for electrification the regulatory framework until recently slowed down their implementation. This paper examines the updates in the main aspects of the legal framework in the European Union from 2019 to the beginning of 2022 related to Power-to-X: support schemes specific targets and potential barriers. The results show increasing interest and market entrance of electrolysis and push from the different actors and regulatory parties to establish solutions that will enable faster upscaling. However it is visible from the National Energy and Climate Plans and hydrogen strategies that the most emphasis is still on hydrogen as an end fuel for personal vehicles or power-to-gas. On the other hand few countries have implemented legal frameworks facilitating diverse PtX pathways without focusing solely on hydrogen. Nevertheless revisions of RED II have finally set up specific targets for electrofuels and Fit for 55 has introduced new actions supporting electrofuels in aviation and marine transport.

Direct containment heating (DCH) is one of the potential factors leading to early containment failure. DCH is closely related to safety analysis and containment performance evaluation of nuclear power plants. In this study a DCH prediction program was developed to analyze the DCH loads of containment vessel. The phenomenological model of debris dispersal metal oxidation reaction debris-atmospheric heat transfer and hydrogen jet burn was established. Code assessment was performed by comparing with several separate effect tests and integral effect tests. The comparison between the predicted results and experimental data shows that the program can predict the key parameters such as peak pressure temperature and hydrogen production in containment well and for most comparisons the relative errors can be maintained within 20%. Among them the prediction uncertainty of hydrogen production is slightly larger. The analysis shows that the main sources of the error are the difference of time scale and the oxidation of cavity debris.

Hydrogen constitutes the only carbon-free fuel that can be used for energy conversion producing water as the only by-product. With water being one of the most abundant and inexhaustible raw materials in the world and the required electricity input being provided by renewable resources the produced hydrogen via water electrolysis constitutes a green pathway towards sustainability. In this work a hybrid PV power-to-hydrogen storage and fuel cell system is proposed to satisfy the domestic load of a residential building. Identifying alkaline as a mandatory electrolysis technology the performance of alkaline electrolysis cells is assessed considering the inclusion of a two-switch buck-boost converter. Following a comprehensive formulation with respect to each distinguished system component the balance condition at DC and AC buses is determined. The proposed configuration is evaluated taking into account PV systems of different ratings namely 3 kW 5 kW and 7 kW. Based on actual data relating to both PV generation and domestic load for the year 2020 the obtained results from the annual simulations are compared with feed-in tariff and net-metering schemes. According to the results PV capacity firming is achieved creating great opportunities for autonomy enhancement not only for electricity but also in other energy sectors.

Hydrogen-based energy carriers including hydrogen ammonia and synthetic hydrocarbons are expected to help reduce residual carbon dioxide emissions in the context of the Paris Agreement goals although their potential has not yet been fully clarified in light of their competitiveness and complementarity with other mitigation options such as electricity biofuels and carbon capture and storage (CCS). This study aimed to explore the role of hydrogen in the global energy system under various mitigation scenarios and technology portfolios using a detailed energy system model that considers various energy technologies including the conversion and use of hydrogen-based energy carriers. The results indicate that the share of hydrogen-based energy carriers generally remains less than 5% of global final energy demand by 2050 in the 2 ◦C scenarios. Nevertheless such carriers contribute to removal of residual emissions from the industry and transport sectors under specific conditions. Their share increases to 10–15% under stringent mitigation scenarios corresponding to 1.5 ◦C warming and scenarios without CCS. The transport sector is the largest consumer accounting for half or more of hydrogen production followed by the industry and power sectors. In addition to direct usage of hydrogen and ammonia synthetic hydrocarbons converted from hydrogen and carbon captured from biomass or direct air capture are attractive transport fuels growing to half of all hydrogen-based energy carriers. Upscaling of electrification and biofuels is another common cost-effective strategy revealing the importance of holistic policy design rather than heavy reliance on hydrogen.

The production of green hydrogen from renewable energy by means of water electrolysis is a promising approach to support energy sector decarbonization. This paper presents a techno-economic model of plants with PV sources connected to electrolysis in self-consumption regime that considers the dynamics of electrolysis systems. The model calculates the optimal hourly dispatch of the electrolysis system including the operational states (production standby and idle) the load factor in production and the energy imports and exports to the electricity grid. Results indicate that the model is a useful decision support tool to operate electrolysis plants connected to PV plants in self-consumption regimes with the target of reducing hydrogen production costs.

When the pandemic recedes lockdowns and restrictions are relaxed and eventually eliminated and millions of residents in cities across the world begin to return to their offices and workplaces public transit systems will once again be at the core of billions of commuters' daily activities. Urban transit systems are designed to move huge volumes of people through cities and communities quickly reliably and cost-efficiently (some systems accomplish these goals better than others!). The energy needed to run these networks of cars trains and buses is enormous and today most of it comes from fossil fuels. How can communities - both large and small - redesign their transit systems to eliminate operational carbon emissions in the future?

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The Poza de la Sal diapir is a closed circular depression with Cretaceous Mesozoic materials formed by gypsum Keuper clays and a large extension of salt in the center with intercalations of ophite. The low seismic activity of the area the reduced permeability and porosity of the salt caverns and the proximity to the Páramo de Poza wind park make it a suitable place for the construction of a facility for underground storage of green hydrogen obtained from surplus wind power. The design of a cavern for hydrogen storage at a depth of 1000 m takes into account the differences in stresses temperatures and confining pressures involved in the salt deformation process. During the 8 months of the injection phase 23.0 GWh can be stored in the form of hydrogen obtained from the wind energy surplus to be used later in the extraction phase. The injection and extraction ratio must be developed under the conditions of geomechanical safety of the cavity so as to minimize the risks to the environment and people by conditioning the gas pressure inside the cavity to remain within a given range.

Clean fuel is advocated to be used for sustainability. The number of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and hydrogen vehicles is increasing globally. Explosion hazard is a threat. On the other hand the use of hydrogen is under consideration in Hong Kong. Explosion hazards of these clean fuel (LPG and hydrogen) vehicles were studied and are compared in this paper. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software Flame Acceleration Simulator (FLACS) was used. A car garage with a rolling shutter as its entrance was selected for study. Dispersion of LPG from the leakage source with ignition at a higher position was studied. The same garage was used with a typical hydrogen vehicle leaking 3.4 pounds (1.5 kg) of hydrogen in 100 s the mass flow rate being equal to 0.015 kgs−1 . The hydrogen vehicle used in the simulation has two hydrogen tanks with a combined capacity of 5 kg. The entire tank would be completely vented out in about 333 s. Two scenarios of CFD simulation were carried out. In the first scenario the rolling shutter was completely closed and the leaked LPG or hydrogen was ignited at 300 s after leakage. The second scenario was conducted with a gap height of 0.3 m under the rolling shutter. Predicted results of explosion pressure and temperature show that appropriate active fire engineering systems are required when servicing these clean fuel vehicles in garages. An appropriate vent in an enclosed space such as the garage is important in reducing explosion hazards.

The main goal of THyGA’s WP5 is to investigate ways to adapt residential or commercial appliances that have safety or performance issues to different levels of H2 concentrations in natural gas. This first deliverable presents some possible mitigation measures based on a literature study and some calculations.<br/>Acting on gas quality to avoid that hydrogen addition enhance current gas properties variations was explored several times in the past. Designing new appliances that could operate with variable gas composition including hydrogen. Dealing with existing appliances in order to guaranty safety for users and appliances.

Since the 1970s hydrogen has been considered as a possible energy carrier for the storage of renewable energy. The main focus has been on addressing the ultimate challenge: developing an environmentally friendly successor for gasoline. This very ambitious goal has not yet been fully reached as discussed in this review but a range of new lightweight hydrogen-containing materials has been discovered with fascinating properties. State-of-the-art and future perspectives for hydrogen-containing solids will be discussed with a focus on metal borohydrides which reveal significant structural flexibility and may have a range of new interesting properties combined with very high hydrogen densities.

The application of appropriate procedures in the downstream gas industry (defined as any works downstream of the emergency control value) is critical in protecting consumers of gas both domestic and commercial. The two primary standard setting bodies for the downstream gas industry are the British Standard Institution (BSI) and the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM). To ensure only competent engineers carry out works on a gas installation all gas businesses or selfemployed persons must become a member of Gas Safe Register as stipulated by the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 1 and each gas operative shall be included on the register and hold a valid license card that covers the areas of gas work they undertake. Membership of the Gas Safe Register is contingent upon demonstration of competency the recognised competency assessments are based on the relevant BSI and IGEM standards. Therefore the primary source of a gas operative’s competency to work on natural gas installations are the associated BSI and IGEM natural gas downstream standards.<br/>Investigation was undertaken to understand the potential implications of introducing 20 mol% hydrogen (H2) within natural gas supplies on the ability of gas operatives to competently carry out works. This investigation took the form of identifying all BSI and IGEM standards that could be applied on natural gas installations and reviewing them within the context of the known effects of introducing a 20 mol% H2 blend. Following review a series of technical questions were generated and responded to by the Health and Safety Executive Science Division. The responses provided were then reviewed and if considered necessary challenged to provide further information. The procedural review was led by Blue Flame Associates a body deemed sufficiently competent in downstream standards training certification and investigation. The report was subsequently reviewed by industry and feedback received. The industry comments were reviewed by the Project Team and where considered necessary the report was updated.

Decentralised renewable energy production in the form of fuels or electricity can have large scale deployment in future energy systems but the feasibility needs to be assessed. The novelty of this paper is in the design and implementation of a mixed integer linear programming optimisation model to minimise the net present cost of decentralised hydrogen production for different energy demands on neighbourhood urban scale while simultaneously adhering to European Union targets on greenhouse gas emission reductions. The energy system configurations optimised were assumed to possibly consist of a variable number or size of wind turbines solar photovoltaics grey grid electricity usage battery storage electrolyser and hydrogen storage. The demands served are hydrogen for heating and mobility and electricity for the households. A hydrogen residential heating project currently being developed in Hoogeveen The Netherlands served as a case study. Six scenarios were compared each taking one or multiple energy demand services into question. For each scenario the levelised cost of hydrogen was calculated. The lowest levelised cost of hydrogen was found for the combined heating and mobility scenario: 8.36 € kg− 1 for heating and 9.83 € kg− 1 for mobility. The results support potential cost reductions of combined demand patterns of different energy services. A sensitivity analysis showed a strong influence of electrolyser efficiency wind turbine parameters and emission reduction factor on levelised cost. Wind energy was strongly preferred because of the lower cost and the low greenhouse gas emissions compared to solar photovoltaics and grid electricity. Increasing electrolyser efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reduction of the used technologies deserve further research.

The main objective of this paper is to select the optimal configuration of a ship’s power system considering the use of fuel cells and batteries that would achieve the lowest CO2 emissions also taking into consideration the number of battery cycles. The ship analyzed in this work is a Platform Supply Vessel (PSV) used to support oil and gas offshore platforms transporting goods equipment and personnel. The proposed scheme considers the ship’s retrofitting. The ship’s original main generators are maintained and the fuel cell and batteries are installed as complementary sources. Moreover a sensitivity analysis is pursued on the ship’s demand curve. The simulations used to calculate the CO2 emissions for each of the new hybrid configurations were developed using HOMER software. The proposed solutions are auxiliary generators three types of batteries and a protonexchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with different sizes of hydrogen tanks. The PEMFC and batteries were sized as containerized solutions and the sizing of the auxiliary engines was based on previous works. Each configuration consists of a combination of these solutions. The selection of the best configuration is one contribution of this paper. The new configurations are classified according to the reduction of CO2 emitted in comparison to the original system. For different demand levels the results indicate that the configuration classification may vary. Another valuable contribution of this work is the sizing of the battery and hydrogen storage systems. They were installed in 20 ft containers since the installation of batteries fuel cells and hydrogen tanks in containers is widely used for ship retrofit. As a result the most significant reduction of CO2 emissions is 10.69%. This is achieved when the configuration includes main generators auxiliary generators a 3119 kW lithium nickel manganese cobalt (LNMC) battery a 250 kW PEMFC and 581 kg of stored hydrogen.

The HyDeploy project has undertaken a programme of work to assess the effect of hydrogen addition on the safety and performance of gas appliances and installations. A representative set of eight appliances have been assessed in laboratory experiments with a range of test gases that explored high and low Wobbe Index and hydrogen concentrations up to 28.4 % mol/mol. These tests have demonstrated that the addition of hydrogen does not affect the key hazard areas of CO production light back flame out or the operation of flame failure devices. It was identified that for some designs of gas fire appliances the operation of the oxygen depletion sensors may be affected by the addition of hydrogen. Testing of the gas fires that are present at Keele University that use oxygen depletion sensors have been shown to operate satisfactorily.<br/>A comprehensive onsite survey programme at Keele University has assessed 95% of the installations (126 of 133) that will receive the hydrogen blended gas during the HyDeploy trial. Where access to properties was not possible then the information obtained revealed that the appliances were annually checked either through British Gas service contracts or as a result of being rental properties. The onsite testing programme assessed installations for gas tightness and appliance combustion safety and operation with normal line gas G20 reference gas and two hydrogen blended gases. The checks identified a small number instances were remedial work was required to correct poor condition or operation. Only one case was found to be immediately dangerous which was capped off until repair work was undertaken. CO and smoke alarms were fitted in approximately half of properties and alarms were provided as required to the occupants. Gas tightness tests identified leaks in three installations. Where installations are gas tight then analysis has shown that no additional leaks would occur with hydrogen blended gas. There were no issues identified with the combustion performance of those appliances that were operating correctly and results were in line with those obtained in the laboratory testing programme.<br/>The findings of the Appliance and Installation testing program have been used to define the input values into the HyDeploy quantified risk assessment (QRA) where Keele University specific operation is different to GB as a whole or where the findings show the addition of hydrogen will change the risk profile.<br/>Click on supplements to see the other documents from this report

Decarbonization plays an important role in future energy systems for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and establishing a zero-carbon society. Hydrogen is believed to be a promising secondary energy source (energy carrier) that can be converted stored and utilized efficiently leading to a broad range of possibilities for future applications. Moreover hydrogen and electricity are mutually converted creating high energy security and broad economic opportunities toward high energy resilience. Hydrogen can be stored in various forms including compressed gas liquid hydrogen hydrides adsorbed hydrogen and reformed fuels. Among these liquid hydrogen has advantages including high gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen densities and hydrogen purity. However liquid hydrogen is garnering increasing attention owing to the demand for long storage periods long transportation distances and economic performance. This paper reviews the characteristics of liquid hydrogen liquefaction technology storage and transportation methods and safety standards to handle liquid hydrogen. The main challenges in utilizing liquid hydrogen are its extremely low temperature and ortho- to para-hydrogen conversion. These two characteristics have led to the urgent development of hydrogen liquefaction storage and transportation. In addition safety standards for handling liquid hydrogen must be updated regularly especially to facilitate massive and large-scale hydrogen liquefaction storage and transportation.

The results of studies of the influence of hydrogen and hydrogen-containing gas additives on the parameters of various types of internal combustion engines are analyzed and summarized. It made possible to identify the features of the effect on the combustion of fuel during internal combustion engine operation at partial loads. The dependences of reducing the toxicity and fuel consumption of internal combustion engine on the amount of addition of hydrogen and a hydrogen-containing gas to the air-fuel mixture were obtained. It allowed to establish quantitative effects of free hydrogen in particular to quantify the region of small hydrogen additives and the conditions under which hydrogen exhibits the qualities of a chemically active component of the mixture.