Costain is working with Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Wales and West Utilities and food and drink manufacturer Princes Group on a feasibility study to produce hydrogen from biogas from the Cardiff East Waste Water Treatment Works that will fuel boilers to provide heat for fruit juice pasteurisation.

The programme is funded through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's (BEIS)£1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies and processes through the 2020s and 2030s.

The H2Juice project has been awarded £372,931 of funding from the BEIS £26 million Industrial Hydrogen Accelerator Programme (Stream 2A), to demonstrate the feasibility of end-to-end industrial fuel switching to hydrogen. The study will take five months with the possibility to be awarded further funding in the subsequent Stream 2B, to conduct further engineering and a demonstrator.

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The feasibility study will also investigate the ability to utilise different blends of hydrogen with natural gas, enabling the transition to fuel switching and demonstration of system flexibility.

Costain Energy Sector Director, Matt Browell-Hook, said: "I'm delighted that our H2Juice project has been selected under the Government’s hydrogen accelerator programme. Costain has been active for a number of years in the development of hydrogen schemes across the UK and this recent award is a great reflection of the hard work our energy teams have been involved in."

The project builds on a similar study carried out with Welsh Water to evaluate the feasibility of converting waste gases from the sewage treatment process to produce fuel grade hydrogen, which could power local fleet vehicles.