Could the 21st Century be dominated by hydrogen?

H21 – The Need for Change

The UK, as with most other countries around the world, recognises the challenge of climate change. It has committed to reduce carbon emissions by 80% of their 1990 level by 2050. In the UK, this is a legal obligation defined under the terms of the UK Climate Change Act 2008. Climate change is one of the most significant technical, economic, social and business challenges facing the world today. To date, there has been little investigation into the opportunity to decarbonise the GB gas distribution networks at a scale commensurate with climate change targets.

Currently the UK requires circa 1,500 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy to support heat, transport and electric generation. Around 83 TWh (Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2016) of this energy comes from renewable sources. This is 5% of net energy demand i.e. 25% of the red line on the graph. Almost half of the energy consumed in the UK is to provide heat (760 TWh). That is more than that used to produce electricity or for transport. Around 57% of this heat (434 TWh) goes towards meeting the space and water heating requirements of our homes (Ofgem Future Insights series: The Decarbonisation of Heat (2016)). Great Britain has a world class gas grid which heats 83% of its buildings as well as providing almost all commercial and industrial heat.

In July 2016, the H21 Leeds City Gate report was released. The report confirmed that the conversion of the UK gas network to 100% hydrogen was both technically possible and economically viable.  The report provided evidence that the UK gas networks are the correct capacity to be converted to 100% hydrogen, low carbon hydrogen could be credibly sourced at scale, conversion of UK cities could be achieved incrementally, appliances could be converted to operate on 100% hydrogen, and hydrogen could be stored to manage intraday and inter-seasonal swings in demand. Additionally, the report provided a financing methodology which would keep the impact on UK customers’ bills to a minimum taking advantage of the natural expenditure profile of the UK gas industry and its established financing methodology.  All the full details can be found in the H21 report available via the Northern Gas Networks website¹but the headline design parameters for one city (Leeds) are:

• Hydrogen would be provided through a production capacity of 1,025 MW via 4 off 256 MW Steam Methane Reformers (SMRs) located at Teesside due to its access to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

• Total annual demand (in a peak year) would be 6.4 TWh

• Intraday storage of circa 4,000 MWh will be provided via salt caverns in the Teesside region

• Inter-seasonal storage of 700,000 MWh will be provided via salt caverns in the Humber region

• 5m tonnes of CO₂would be sequestered per annum.

• The total costs to convert Leeds including hydrogen production and storage, all associated infrastructure and appliance conversions would be circa £2bn

Since release of the H21 LCG report there have been numerous publications acknowledging the potential of a 100% hydrogen gas grid conversion and calling for urgent action to provide the outstanding pieces of critical evidence. Most notable of these is the independent body ‘The Committee on Climate Change’ (CCC) and their October 2016 publication ‘Next Steps for UK heat policy’. This was followed in October 2017 by the UK Governments ‘Clean Growth Plan’ which shows a 100% hydrogen conversion as one of the large scale credible options for decarbonisation.

International Momentum and the H21 Vision

The global community all have the same climate change commitments and the growing recognition of the difficulty as to how to meet such an incredible challenge.  Big problems need big solutions and the H21 concept has the potential to be the single biggest contributor to meeting global climate change obligations and as such is gathering an international momentum.  H21 interest is growing and H21 based studies are under development in Australia, China, Europe, Ireland, Japan, Hong Kong, Scotland and New Zealand. There is strong and growing local support across many of the Northern local authorities (West Yorkshire, Liverpool, Manchester, Teesside, Newcastle) recognising the benefits to air quality, job creation and climate change targets.

Finally, the H21 project team believe that a conversion to 100% hydrogen in the UK gas grid would allow the UK to meet its clean energy targets by 2050 whilst facilitating a realistic, longer-term, transition to entirely green energy. This longer-term vision would utilise hydrogen to balance global renewable energy requirements with places with excess, for example Australia, a continent with 24 million people, trading green energy with places with shortages, for example the UK with 66 million people. The graph below demonstrates how this transition may occur up to 2100 and, whilst illustrative, is based on credible timescales and delivery for truly large scale domestic and global hydrogen economies.

Conclusions

The H21 concept is to convert the UK gas distribution network to 100% hydrogen over time thereby decarbonising heat and supporting decarbonisation of electric, large industrials and transport.  This would be achieved using technology available across the world today whilst maintaining the benefits of gas and the gas networks in the energy mix for the long-term future.  If undertaken such a conversion would represent the single biggest contribution to meeting climate change obligations.

We need to be clear that a 100% hydrogen conversion does not negate the need for other measures, i.e. energy efficiency improvements, increasing renewables, some nuclear, district heating, ‘bio’-energy etc.  However, whilst there is a common ‘no silver bullet’ consensus, we need to be collectively realistic and recognise different ‘bullets’ have very different contribution capabilities when considered against the 2050 targets.  Furthermore, we also need to remember that 2050 is only over 30 years away and large energy infrastructure construction takes time. Deployment timescales of different ‘bullets’ are often not realistically considered instead preferring economic analysis over credible deliverable actions.

The H21 project represents an opportunity to do something fundamental and for the UK to lead the world in large scale decarbonisation strategies. With continued national, local and international support we can gather the remaining pieces of evidence to make this a reality.