Major Players Collaborate to Explore Green Hydrogen Role in Powering Industry
An innovative collaboration project between industry leaders has aims to accelerate the generation and use of green hydrogen on industrial sites.
Wales & West Utilities has secured funding which will see it partner with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, Yeo Valley and Hydrostar to establish green hydrogen generation demonstrator plants on industrial sites in South Wales and the south west of England.
The funding has been secured under the Strategic Innovation Fund, an Ofgem programme managed in partnership with UKRI. It forms part of the next stage of the NextGen Electrolysis: Wastewater to Green Hydrogen project and sees the gas emergency and pipeline service, Hydrostar and NGED work with both Yeo Valley and Welsh Water to set up and establish two demonstrators on their sites in the south west of England and South Wales respectively.
Hydrogen is considered green when it is produced from renewable power from wind or sunshine through electrolysis. It is widely recognised that green hydrogen can play a role in energy, transport, heat provision, and hard-to-decarbonise industries, replacing natural gas and other fossil fuels.
As part of the programme Welsh Water will install a 100% hydrogen boiler which will provide both heat and hot water to the office block at one of their biggest wastewater treatment works on Rover Way in Cardiff. It will demonstrate how hydrogen can replace natural gas, using the existing gas network infrastructure, and how renewable electricity from solar panels can provide a self-sufficient power source to large buildings.
Yeo Valley will introduce a 20% hydrogen blend into their existing natural gas boiler at their 60-acre Cannington site to align with the UK Government’s considerations that blending up to 20% hydrogen into Britain’s gas distribution networks is seen as a near-term solution for decarbonising energy.
Wastewater from Yeo Valley’s industrial processes will also be used as feedstock for the electrolyser, with excess oxygen used in their water treatment process, offering a closed-loop solution, further enhancing the environmental and financial benefits. Again, renewable energy from solar will be utilitsed as a power source.
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