The UK government has awarded grants worth more than £45mn ($56mn) to 28 firms under its Hysupply 2 competition to encourage innovation in hydrogen supply.

Among the biggest recipients are UK electrolyser manufacturer ITM Power, which has received a £9.3mn government contract to build a 5MW electrolyser stack; utility Vattenfall, which has received £9.3mn to develop an 8.8MW combined wind turbine and green hydrogen production facility; technology firm ERM Dolphyn, which has received £8.6mn for a similar development; and technology firm H2go Power, which has received £4.3mn to develop a low-pressure solid-state hydrogen storage solution.

“This funding will accelerate the development of this exciting new industry, helping position us as a hydrogen superpower on the global stage,” says UK business minister Kwasi Kwarteng.

A study commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) in 2018 demonstrated that process innovations could considerably reduce the cost of producing hydrogen. Funding from Hysupply 2 will help industry players to develop such innovations.

Ongoing support

ITM has already received money from the Beis-funded competition for feasibility and Feed studies, as well as for development and evaluation of the technology.

The new funding will be used to build and test the 5MW electrolyser stack—referred to by ITM as a gigastack. The testing programme will include both component-level and full-system evaluation. 

5MW – Size of electrolyser stack to be developed by ITM

The stack is 2.5 times larger than ITM’s previous product, and the firm says it has various competitive advantages including lower capital costs and an improved ability to operate flexibly when coupled to intermittent renewable energy resources.

“Awards under competitions like this will ensure that the UK remains a world leader in energy transition technology and manufacture, creating jobs, new supply chains and valuable high-tech exports,” says ITM CEO Graham Cooley.

Offshore wind

The Vattenfall project will see green hydrogen produced on location at the firm’s Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm and piped to shore at the Port of Aberdeen. Work on the project has already started, with the goal of first production as early as 2025.

“Placing hydrogen electrolysers on offshore wind turbines is likely to be the quickest and cheapest way of providing fossil-free hydrogen at the scale needed to reduce emissions from heavy industries such as steel and chemicals,” says Danielle Lane, Vattenfall’s UK manager.

The ERM Dolphyn project aims to do the same thing in the Celtic Sea and pipe the hydrogen to Wales, most likely via Milford Haven.

Among the other awards,  gas distributor Cadent received £300,000 for feasibility work focusing on how to purify hydrogen that has been through the gas grid, and the National Nuclear Laboratory in Cumbria will receive £243,000 to investigate producing hydrogen using heat from nuclear reactors.

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Author: Tom Young