Element 2, as part of the HyNTS consortium, secures further funding from InnovateUK to support real-world trials of hydrogen grid de-blending and refuelling technology

United Kingdom, 20 July 2023 – Following successful alpha stage trials in 2022, the HyNTS consortium including Element 2, the UK’s leading hydrogen infrastructure company, has been awarded a further £9.9 million from the OFGEM Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) to move into real-world trials.

This is one of ten projects to be delivered in partnership with Innovate UK, aimed at accelerating the transition to more homegrown, decarbonised energy at the lowest cost to consumers and turning Great Britain into a global centre for energy innovation.

The Beta stage of the HyNTS Deblending for Transport Applications project will create a fully functioning de-blending and refuelling facility, to showcase how grid-extracted hydrogen can be purified, stored and used for heavy transport refuelling.

Transporting gaseous hydrogen via tankers to hydrogen refuelling stations is expensive over longer distances. Pipeline transmission provides an effective, economic and safe alternative, whilst also keeping road traffic and transport CO2 emissions down. The aim of HyNTS is to prove that this is viable from both a technical and economic perspective, unlocking the potential of nationwide distribution network for hydrogen.

HyNTS Deblending for Transport Applications is the project to develop an economically feasible method of adding smaller quantities of hydrogen to the existing gas network and then extracting the hydrogen at the point of use. This has the potential to supply Element 2’s refuelling stations directly from the gas grid, eliminating the need for the road transport of hydrogen.

Brendan Bilton, Chief Technical Officer at Element 2 said: “Through our commitment to providing our customers with the greenest hydrogen at the lowest prices we work with a variety of technology developers in what is a rapidly changing landscape. Through our involvement in these exciting projects, Element 2 is in a position to make use of technological advances such as deblending as soon as they are proven feasible.”

Approximately £49.1 million is going to projects exploring hydrogen-related technologies. These include £33.3 million of funding for National Gas Transmission led work to adapt existing gas compression units for use with hydrogen, to enable it to be fed into networks. A further £9.9 million of funding has been allocated to investigate the viability of using hydrogen to fuel heavy duty transportation.

The chosen projects have all shown a real potential to be widely adopted, helping to transform Great Britain’s energy systems in line with Government net zero targets and benefit consumers in the coming years