The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy has awarded the Bay Hydrogen Hub – Hydrogen4Hanson project, in Lancashire, almost £400,000 in funding for a feasibility study.

The funding has been made available from the government's £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, under the Industrial Hydrogen Accelerator Programme. The project is a key step towards the decarbonisation of the asphalt and cement industries, developing nuclear enabled hydrogen production and investigating technologies to deliver hydrogen to dispersed industrial sites.

The consortium, which involves Hanson UK, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), Hynamics, CERES Power, EDF R&D and EDF Generation, will undertake this Stream 2A initial feasibility study, with the future target of demonstrating the technology at the megawatt scale through 2023-25.

The concept is to demonstrate solid oxide electrolysis (SOEC) integrated with nuclear heat and electricity to provide low carbon, low-cost hydrogen via novel, next generation composite storage tankers to dispersed asphalt and cement sites in the area around Heysham nuclear power station.

-- Advertisement --

The technology could improve hydrogen production efficiency by 20% when compared to conventional electrolysis and has not yet been physically demonstrated anywhere in the world. Neither has the use of hydrogen as a fuel for asphalt production. This approach has the potential for significant carbon emission reduction, supporting the UK’s net zero mission and ensuring that the nation continues leading the way in the cement and asphalt industries.

Patrick Dupeyrat, EDF UK Research & Development, said: "This award is an enormous vote of confidence in our project. Decarbonising UK industry is one of the biggest challenges the nation faces in the push for Net Zero – using nuclear power to produce hydrogen which can power the carbon heavy asphalt industry is a logical thing to do.

"Doing so will help create the nation's new nuclear future with new innovative technology and could help safeguard jobs."

The Bay Hydrogen Hub research and development will also make a significant contribution to decarbonising multiple construction industries and supporting nuclear generated hydrogen from the next generation of nuclear reactors.

It is hoped that the project will demonstrate a key step forward towards the decarbonisation of both the asphalt and cement industries and has the potential to be upscaled to more than 250 sites in the UK alone, and learnings disseminated across the mineral products industry.