Hydrogen energy looks to have been sidelined by big industry players, with Airbus, BP and Shell all announcing delays to hydrogen research investments and projects. It’s the Trump effect: the renewed support for fossil fuels that’s had a sudden and immediate influence, in terms of the mindsets and policies of both businesses and governments globally.
On the surface at least, that means a serious reversal of progress being made towards replacing black with green technologies in manufacturing, removing the confidence and sense of a common, clear direction that’s so essential to turning research concepts into working solutions.
However, it’s at this moment that Cranfield has pushed ahead with closing down its specialist oil and gas research facilities. The multi-phase flow lab, for example, which has been the basis of decades of work on subsea drilling, is being stripped out and sold off. Simultaneously, they’re creating space for a full-service hydrogen lab, including an engine test centre focused on hydrogen, not oil.
Significantly, the majority of financial backing behind the new CH2i facility on campus (Cranfield Hydrogen Integration Incubator) comes from a range of businesses, £46m from across transport, aerospace, energy and among those industries with targets for decarbonisation, such as steel, food and ceramics (with the remaining third funded by Research England). Hydrogen power is high on the agenda for industry internationally, particularly in Europe, the MENA region and nations such as India etc.
The reality is that US policy on fossil fuels is very short-term. As a businessman, Trump is thinking in terms of maximising returns from his assets, making the most of low-cost, in-house fuel stocks before the inevitable dwindling in supplies, global demand and value. In the context of the evolution of the world’s energy infrastructure, now more than 120 years old, the Trump years are a blip, and will do nothing to change the direction of travel towards new energy sources and solutions. If large energy companies have pulled back from their commitments to hydrogen then it’s also because of the short-term opportunity from pushing oil and gas, and also because of temporary market conditions, windfall taxes, instability and reduced profit margins.
The momentum behind hydrogen research and the bid to establish viable systems for production, transportation, storage and different forms of low and zero carbon uses is unaffected. Whatever delays and distractions there might be, in whatever sector, the same need for workable alternatives isn’t going anywhere. And meanwhile, the UK has taken on a leading role in hydrogen, making it internationally competitive, especially when it comes to the use of feedstocks in hydrogen production, the use of electrolysis and catalysts, biomass and fermentations, and sorbent enhanced methane, as well as in our work on finding practical applications for industries of all sizes.
The government’s hydrogen roadmap is aiming for five gigawatts of hydrogen production capacity by 2030 — which would be equivalent to replacing natural gas in three million homes plus powering transport and industry. By 2050, hydrogen is expected to constitute 25-30% of national energy use. Last year the European Union backed a €5.4bn investment in hydrogen technology projects around the continent, with billions in additional subsidies expected to follow to support industry decarbonisation. At the same time, the EU has approved increased proportions of hydrogen in natural gas supplies, up to 20%.
Cranfield’s CH2i is due to be fully operational by March 2026. Building on 30 years of hydrogen research at the university, there will be a full hydrogen ecosystem on campus, linking projects and facilities in production, storage, materials and usage. The technology incubator will accelerate hydrogen research through to delivery for use in industry.
There are a host of challenges standing in the way of a working hydrogen economy for manufacturing. There has to be mass production, grounded in green energy supplies and without putting unsustainable strains on water resources. There also needs to be guarantees around safety in storage and transport to ensure public confidence (although, it should be said that hydrogen was flowing through gas pipelines for decades between the 1940s and 1970s in the UK without incidents, and before the kinds of standards and technologies we have available now).
One of the central elements of the ecosystem is the production of hydrogen. A new generation plant is operating on campus for the testing of bulk production of ‘blue’ hydrogen, involving integrated carbon capture, utilisation and storage. Working with the US-based Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and British energy company Doosan Babcock, the 1.5MWh pilot plant has demonstrated how high purity H2 can be produced at a 30% lower cost than conventional steam methane reforming methods. Carbon emissions are cut by 97% compared with traditional hydrogen production. The consortium plans to upscale the plant ten times for clean hydrogen production from natural gas.
Some of the timescales for transition might look something for the future, but in the context of both our history of energy technologies and the urgency of net zero targets and climate change hydrogen is imminent. Based on current progress, we’d expect to see manufacturing industries decarbonising through their use of hydrogen for heat processes within the next 10 years (supported by a network of hydrogen-HGVs for logistics on roads in less than 15 years).
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