The role of hydrogen in powering industry (2021)

The IET has responded to an inquiry launch by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hydrogen on ‘The Role of Hydrogen in Powering Industry’. The potential of hydrogen is significant across a wide range of UK industry sectors and includes its use in backup electricity generation, heating, carbon capture and storage (CCS), energy/resource efficiency, fuel cells, transport, shipping, aviation, infrastructure, and electricity network expansion.

To leverage the full potential of this energy vector, hydrogen must be considered as part of a wider energy system i.e. Whole Systems Thinking.

The IET’s report, Transitioning to Hydrogen, highlights five areas that require urgent attention:

• Progress the carbon capture, utilisation and storage infrastructure
• Deploy critical new technology
• Prepare a transition programme
• Develop skills and plan resources
• Fund the programme

There has been much debate about the two main hydrogen production methods, natural gas reforming and electrolysis. But there are also other choices for example, from biomass gasification. This is important because, to achieve net-zero, the UK must have a strategy for greenhouse gas removals. In the future, we might be able to decarbonise without the need for removals but that is not the case at present. The key technology here is biomass with CCS (or BECCS). There’s also the substantial potential of imported hydrogen, produced using solar photovoltaics.

These options warrant further investigation before any decision can be made. The UK needs a wide range of technologies and hybrid systems, in the transition to net-zero. This means investing, evaluating, and implementing at pace and scale now, in order to make informed choices and decisions.