UK gas distributor Wales & West Utilities will start injecting 1pc hydrogen into its gas network in Swindon in October.

The utility has received clearance from the UK Health & Safety Executive to move ahead with the project to use bio-synthetic natural gas (bioSNG), which has a hydrogen content of 1pc.

BioSNG is a renewable gas generated by waste-to-energy projects.

“The 2020s must be a decade of delivery, where we put the research and development work that has been done on hydrogen into practice,” says Sarah Williams, Wales & West Utilities’ director of regulation and asset strategy.

“This project will help support ambitious plans across the UK to convert villages to hydrogen, help heavy industry decarbonise and meet government’s aspirations on hydrogen for home heating.”

“This project will help support ambitious plans across the UK to convert villages to hydrogen” Williams, Wales & West Utilities

Earlier this year, the company joined the UK’s other gas network companies in industry body the Energy Networks Association’s plan to blend up to 20pc hydrogen into local gas grids by 2023, and to convert villages to run on 100pc hydrogen by 2025.

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.

Testing has already shown that blending at mixes of up to 20pc is a realistic possibility, and that domestic boilers can burn a mix of hydrogen and natural gas at that concentration.

As part of its Future Grid project, UK utility National Grid is taking sections of decommissioned pipeline from around the country and running hydrogen through them in a test facility at a 2pc, 20pc and 100pc blend with natural gas to see how well the pipes perform.

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Author: Tom Young