Hydrogen will play a key part in heating UK homes in the future, according to a report by Cadent, the UK’s largest gas distribution network. Future low-carbon heating is likely to principally involve a mix of heat pumps and hydrogen.

Generally, heat pumps have higher upfront installation costs but lower running costs, whereas hydrogen boilers will have upfront installation costs equivalent to those of gas boilers but are likely to be more expensive to run.

This means that older homes may be better suited to run on hydrogen boilers because of high insulation costs.

“Much of the investment needed to make the gas network ready to safely transport hydrogen has already been made” Cadent

Full hydrogen boilers are not yet commercially available, but consumers may soon be able to purchase ‘hydrogen ready’ boilers that can easily be converted to run on hydrogen.

These boilers work in the same way as current natural gas boilers, and few other upgrades would be needed to home heating networks. Cadent is already upgrading the gas distribution network as part of of a 30-year rolling programme to replace old iron mains with new polyethylene pipes. Although the project was originally established to replace ageing pipework, it also equips the network better to carry high blends of hydrogen.

Making gas pipes hydrogen-ready

Hydrogen in high concentrations and at high pressures can damage the steel in conventional gas pipelines over time, but much depends on the age and construction of the pipe. “Much of the investment needed to make the gas network ready to safely transport hydrogen has already been made,” says Cadent’s Green Print report.

Cadent is involved in trials that involve injecting up to 20pc hydrogen into Keele University’s existing natural gas network, feeding 100 homes and 30 faculty buildings.

Although any repurposing of the gas distribution network to carry hydrogen would require the approval of the UK’s health and safety executive, the results of these trials suggest most problems could be overcome, according to David Watson, head of energy transition at Cadent. “Everything we’ve seen from trials suggests it is not going to be a problem,” he tells Transition Economist.

The UK is also targeting a ‘hydrogen neighbourhood trial’ by 2023, a ‘large hydrogen village trial’ by 2025 and a ‘hydrogen town’ by 2030 .

The report calls for the UK government’s upcoming Hydrogen Strategy to show a high degree of ambition.

“This means stretching hydrogen production targets, business models for hydrogen and carbon capture and storage, support for industrial clusters, enabling the blending of hydrogen, mandating hydrogen-ready gas appliances, a new regulatory regime to support hydrogen, and completion of the work underway to get the gas networks ready for hydrogen,” it says.

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Author: Tom Young