Hy Deploy Project

Otto Simon Ltd • January 30, 2018

OSL is supporting a pioneering energy trial of blended hydrogen and natural gas

Reducing carbon emissions is a top priority for the UK; having committed to an 80% reduction by 2050. By blending hydrogen into the normal gas supply across the UK, 6m tons of carbon could be saved every year; that’s the equivalent of removing 2.5m cars from the road.

For more than a year a consortium of grid operators and technical experts have been working together to develop the technology to produce low-carbon hydrogen and blend it into the gas network. The project will conduct a year-long live trial of blended gas at Keele University; using the campus’ own private gas network to host the trial. As the largest campus in the UK, the university’s private network serves a mixture of residential and commercial buildings, providing an accurate representation of a small town.

The project aims to establish and demonstrate the level of hydrogen that can be safely blended with natural gas for use across the UK, and will provide practical evidence that the hydrogen blended gas can be delivered without any impact to customers. As the existing national gas grid was originally designed for Hydrogen rich gas before the North Sea boom provided a flood of cheap natural gas to burn instead, it is expected that few appliances would need to be replaced to safely work with the hydrogen blend.

HyDeploy is a consortium between Cadent Gas Limited, Northern Gas Networks, Keele University, Health & Safety Laboratory, ITM Power and Progressive Energy, the HyDeploy project is also supported by specialist gas safety testing specialists Kiwa, industry research experts Dave Lander, with technical consultancy provided by Otto Simon.

Read more about this exciting project on the HyDeploy website and in Otto Simon's project reference
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