A groundbreaking project has successfully demonstrated that the UK's existing gas network can be repurposed to transport hydrogen, offering a new pathway to a low-carbon energy system.

The trial, conducted by SGN in Scotland, proves that the same infrastructure that delivers gas to millions of homes and businesses today can also play a major role in cutting future carbon emissions.

The live trial, named LTS Futures, focused on a 30km section of the high-pressure Local Transmission System (LTS) pipeline that runs between Granton, near Edinburgh, and Grangemouth. The project aimed to prove that the techniques used to maintain and operate natural gas networks today could be safely performed on live hydrogen pipelines.

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In a UK first, specialist teams successfully completed key engineering tasks on the high-pressure pipeline transporting hydrogen, including welding and drilling into the live pipeline to create a new connection (hot works) and isolating the flow of hydrogen in the pipe (flow stopping).

The project's success will now create a blueprint for repurposing the entire 11,600km LTS network. This could help to create regional hydrogen hubs, support industrial clusters, and provide a low-disruption and resilient backbone for a net-zero energy system.