COMING UP
4
WHAT WILL THE SECOND EUROPEAN HYDROGEN BANK AUCTION ROUND BRING IN 2025?
12
THE UK’S BIGGEST DECARBONISATION OPPORTUNITY: DECARBONISING THE HUMBER WITH HYDROGEN
8
CARBON CAPTURE’S ROLE IN NET-ZERO – IDTECHEX EXPLORES CCUS TECHNOLOGIES
20
TOYOTA PORTABLE HYDROGEN CARTRIDGES: A PRACTICAL AND ACCESSIBLE DECARBONISATION SOLUTION
24
PODCAST EPISODE 30: EXPLORING AMMONIA AS AN ANSWER TO THE HYDROGEN STORAGE DEBATE
FOREWORD
“Quite simply, the UK can’t achieve net zero and grow the economy without decarbonising the Humber.”
As we begin 2025, what can the hydrogen sector expect to see over the next 12 months? This issue breaks down the movements in policy, technological breakthroughs, and the latest regional efforts.
Hydrogen Industry Leaders brings you industry insights from our final HIL 100 Breakfast Hub of 2024. Gathered in Hull, the sector heard of the ongoing hydrogen projects and advancements that promise the shape the wider UK’s decarbonisation journey as the Humber 2030 Vision approaches.
This issue also delves into the possibilities through the second European Hydrogen Bank auction round, highlights how carbon capture technologies will play their role in meeting net zero, and explores the cutting-edge technologies that are making hydrogen more accessible than ever.
Hydrogen Industry Leaders looks at current hydrogen projects, innovations and policies shaping the hydrogen economy that will undoubtedly lead the way for the future of low-carbon energy.
Floyd March Editor f.march@peloton-events.co.uk
Hannah
Wintle Multi Media Journalist
Paul Rose Graphic Designer
WHAT WILL THE SECOND EUROPEAN HYDROGEN BANK AUCTION ROUND BRING
IN 2025?
THE EUROPEAN BANK ROUND
The European Commission has officially launched the second European Hydrogen Bank auction. With a budget of approximately €1.2 billion, it will significantly boost the renewable hydrogen sector.
Renewable hydrogen producers can bid for a fixed-price premium of up to €4 per kilogram of hydrogen produced over 10 years. The auction is structured into two baskets: a general basket (€1 billion) and a newly introduced Maritime basket (€200 million).
Additionally, the Auction-as-a-Service (AaaS) model will attract further funding contributions from EU Member States, including Austria (€400 million), Spain (€280-400 million), and Lithuania (€36 million), bringing the Bank’s total firepower to around €2 billion.
Renewable hydrogen producers can bid for a fixed-price premium of up to €4 per kilogram of hydrogen produced over 10 years.
The new eligibility criteria for the second auction include limiting electrolyser stack sourcing from China to a maximum of 25% (in MWe), along with other manufacturing steps, and requiring mandatory compliance with European and international safety and cybersecurity standards. Projects will now face stricter requirements to demonstrate their maturity, including a new mandate to reach a final investment decision within 2.5 years of the grant signature and an increased completion bond set at 8%.
However, there is currently no visibility on future Hydrogen Bank auctions, leaving the sector in need of clearer guidance on upcoming rounds to better structure projects and determine the optimal timing for applications.
Bidders can apply via the EU Funding and Tenders Portal until 20 February 2025, with an information session held on 10 December 2024. Successful applicants will be notified in Spring 2025.
INNOVATION FUND GRANT 2024 LAUNCHED
The European Commission has also unveiled the Innovation Fund Call 2024, allocating €3.4 billion to support breakthrough clean energy projects. The call is split into:
f A General Innovation Fund Call (€2.4 billion), covering large (€1.2 billion), medium (€200 million), and small (€100 million) decarbonisation projects, cleantech manufacturing including electrolysers and fuel cells (€700 million), and pilot projects (€200 million).
f A Battery-Specific Call (€1 billion) will support projects that demonstrate innovative technologies in electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing.
This year’s Innovation Fund introduces significant enhancements. The grants-as-a-service model allows Member States to provide additional funding for projects that pass the Fund’s evaluation but exceed the budget ceiling or require supplementary national support.
Introducing the STEP seal, an EU quality label recognising high-quality projects that contribute to the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) objectives, enhances the Innovation Fund’s impact. This label will be given to projects exceeding the evaluation thresholds and is designed to attract additional funding from both private and public sources.
Applications are due 24 April 2025, and info sessions were held on 17 December 2024 (General Call) and 18 December 2024 (Battery Call).
The Innovation Fund remains a cornerstone for clean hydrogen projects
Jorgo Chatzimarkakis CEO of Hydrogen Europe
A CATALYST FOR GROWTH
Commenting on the announcements, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe, said: “We welcome the launch of the second European Hydrogen Bank auction and the Innovation Fund Call 2024 as vital steps in advancing the hydrogen sector and Europe’s clean energy goals.”
“The Innovation Fund remains a cornerstone for clean hydrogen projects, with new tools like the STEP seal and grants-as-a-service enhancing opportunities to pool additional resources and attract investments, ensuring the sector continues to build momentum.
“However, greater visibility on future Hydrogen Bank auctions is crucial to help developers plan and decide on the best application timing, ensuring project pipelines progress efficiently.”
CARBON CAPTURE’S ROLE IN NET-ZERO
IDTECHEX EXPLORES
CCUS TECHNOLOGIES
Reaching net zero by 2050 will require global reductions in anthropogenic CO2 emissions, alongside removing legacy CO2 as a complementary approach. IDTechEx’s report, “Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Markets 2025-2045: Technologies, Market Forecasts, and Players” explores carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) as a means to stop carbon dioxide from entering the environment through a variety of technologies, from absorption solvents to membranes, each with their own benefits and challenges.
FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE OF COST AND PERFORMANCE FOR CCUS
CCUS can already use mature technologies to decarbonise existing assets and begins with carbon dioxide being captured from point sources of emissions or directly from the atmosphere. This CO2 can then be compressed, transported, stored underground, or converted into profitable carboncontaining products.
Ever-expanding technological innovations for carbon capture processes will allow CCUS to gain traction and popularity through decreased costs. Balancing performance with costs for specific industrial applications is an ongoing challenge. IDTechEx reports that major CCUS technology providers are working towards offering a broad range of technologies in order to source the most economical approaches to meet varying requirements.
ABSORPTION AND ADSORPTION
Selectively separating CO2 molecules from other gases can be achieved with a number of methods, with the two main ones being absorption solvents and adsorption sorbents. Chemical or physical absorption solvents bind with CO2 molecules in order to remove them from a flue gas stream. The CO2-rich solvent is then transported to a second column where high temperatures yield a pure CO2 stream and a regenerated solvent.
Amine solvents are a popular choice for this carbon capture process, as they have rapid absorption rates, attaching strongly to CO2 for high capture efficiencies and capture rates even at lower concentrations of CO2. However, the very high temperatures needed for amine solvent regeneration result in high capture costs, spurring increased investment into developing lowertemperature solutions. The amine solvent process also produces toxic byproducts, and requires large pieces of equipment, meaning it is not such an economical choice in some cases where the emitter has less space or heat availability.
Adsorption is currently the second most favorable option for carbon capture, working best in medium to high concentrations of CO2. Adsorption processes use solid sorbents and have low energy requirements with simple operation, although amine solvent technologies generally perform better where there are lower CO2 concentrations.
OTHER CARBON CAPTURE PROCESSES
Membranes, cryogenic separation, and looping technologies are emerging CCUS technologies that are being developed in the pursuit of lower-cost alternatives to solvent-based approaches.
Membranes have a small land footprint, using no hazardous chemicals, and can be simply operated. IDTechEx reports that despite these notable benefits, membranes remain immature for large-scale megatonne per annum CCUS deployment and still require innovations to achieve high CO2 recovery. Similarly, standalone cryogenic technologies are not yet ready for large-scale carbon capture and require large amounts of energy, but can achieve high purity CO2.
Leading carbon capture players have started to commercialise hybrid approaches, with combinations of technologies such as solid adsorbents and cryogenic capture providing a unique solution to achieving desired results by harnessing the benefits of both techniques.
Leading carbon capture players have started to commercialise hybrid approaches
Achieving net zero by 2050 will require approximately 30 gigatonnes less CO2 to be emitted each year
CARBON PRICING MORE IMPORTANT THAN TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
Even if new technology innovations only achieve small reductions in costs for CO2 capture, developments in carbon pricing can support the CCUS business model. In 2024, there were several notable developments in carbon pricing. A carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is progressing within the EU to ensure that imported goods are still obliged to be charged a carbon price equivalent to that of domestic production. In Canada, a CCUS tax credit system has been put in place as of 2024, with refundable tax credits of up to 60% for various capture equipment, transportation, storage, and usage.
IDTECHEX’S CCUS OUTLOOK
Achieving net zero by 2050 will require approximately 30 gigatonnes less CO2 to be emitted each year, according to IDTechEx, alongside 2-10 gigatonnes of CO2 removal per year. CCUS has been recognised by many global bodies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency, as a great decarbonisation tool to help achieve these goals.
For more information, visit IDTechEx’s report, “Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Markets 2025-2045: Technologies, Market Forecasts, and Players”, for players operating within the sector and the latest market developments. Downloadable sample pages are available for this report.
THE UK’S BIGGEST DECARBONISATION OPPORTUNITY
DECARBONISING THE HUMBER WITH HYDROGEN
BIGGEST DECARBONISATION
The Humber has a key role to play in the UK’s decarbonisation journey, and hydrogen is already shaping the region as it navigates this path. With momentum strong as a new year begins, the end of 2024 gave the industry a chance to assess the progress made to date and understand the opportunities going forwards.
For its second year in a row, Hydrogen Industry Leaders united the sector in Hull for the final instalment of the 2024 HIL 100 Breakfast Hub series. With industry leaders from Arup, N-Gen, Siemens, SSE Thermal, Centrica Storage, and Northern Gas Networks present, the sector gained an insight into the current hydrogen landscape in the region.
Throughout the Humber, some key advancements are already being made to bolster the wider UK hydrogen economy, and the sector heard more about the projects that are shaping the industry, the progress made to date, and the opportunities that are still there for the taking as we inch closer to the Humber 2030 Vision.
High-skilled,
green jobs. Private
investment to drive economic growth. A decarbonised future for our country. This is our shared vision for the Humber.
Humber Energy Board, The Humber 2030 Vision
Hull 2024
2024 HIL 100 BREAKFAST HUB SERIES: OUR INDUSTRY LEADERS
Sally Prickett Director and UKIMEA Hydrogen Lead, Arup
Chris McClane Energy Transition Interface Manager, Centrica Storage
Andy Lane UK & Ireland Hydrogen Lead, Siemens
Chris Verity Hydrogen Senior Projects Manager, Northern Gas Networks
David Gill Business Development Director, N-Gen
William Joyce Senior Consultant, Arup
Jade Fernandez Head of Stakeholder Engagement, SSE Thermal
THE HUMBER 2030 VISION
As the UK’s commitment to achieve net zero by 2050 draws closer with each new year, it is clearer than ever that the Humber will play a significant role in getting there.
The Humber emits more CO2 than any other industrial cluster in the country, and represents the UK’s biggest decarbonisation opportunity. Its decarbonisation will be essential to achieving net zero, and the region boasts world-leading infrastructure, investment, innovation and technology to help get there.
Quite simply, the UK can’t achieve net zero and grow the economy without decarbonising the Humber.
Humber Energy Board, The Humber 2030 Vision
Additionally, the decarbonisation challenge presents a unique opportunity to foster economic growth, support jobs, and deliver a sustainable future for the generations to come. As such, the Humber 2030 Vision, launched in Hull in February 2023, was formulated as an ambitious mission to reach net zero by 2030, bringing together more than two dozen partners from across the industry.
To achieve this, projects centred around carbon capture and storage and low carbon hydrogen will revolutionise the approach to clean energy in the region, and help to tackle some of the most carbon intensive industries such as power generation and steelmaking.
In fact, as well as being able to produce half of the UK’s renewable electricity, enough to power 25 million homes, the Humber also has enough hydrogen storage capacity to power 2 million UK homes for one year, and will have the capacity to meet 30% of the UK government’s hydrogen production targets by 2030.
Highlighting the Humber’s potential to deliver, Jörgen Sandström Head of Energy, Materials, Infrastructure Program - Industrial Transformation, World Economic Forum, said: “There are few places around the world more crucial to the road to net zero and industrial decarbonisation than the Humber – it is a location from which so much can be achieved and learned.”
There’s an opportunity to learn from projects that have come before, to be able to be better, to move faster and have higher quality outcomes
Sally Prickett, Director, UKIMEA Hydrogen Advisory, Arup
LESSONS LEARNED ARE SHAPING THE HUMBER LANDSCAPE
Echoing this vision and emphasising the potential of the region to drive sustainable change for the wider UK, Sally Prickett, Director, UKIMEA Hydrogen Advisory at Arup, said at the HIL 100 Breakfast Hub: “The Humber really is at the forefront of the UK’s hydrogen revolution, and it’s going to play a pivotal role in the journey that we’re taking towards decarbonising industry.”
She highlighted that the region boasts all the right ingredients, such as production, transportation, use cases, storage, and the potential to import, making it a distinctive asset to the UK, and drew attention to the industry partners that are paving the way for hydrogen.
As well as highlighting the multiple projects that are advancing the hydrogen economy in the Humber, Sally acknowledged that negative headlines about other projects being paused or cancelled can sometimes be discouraging. However, she also urged the positive implications that this has for other, potentially more promising, projects.
“There are projects falling away, but actually what’s happening is, as an industry, as companies, the good projects are being prioritised,” she said. “The good projects are still getting investment. They’re informed, and what’s changed is we know what good looks like, and therefore we’re able to make those decisions to move the projects forward.”
Sally outlined the current landscape in the Humber and what the industry can expect going forwards. Firstly, she acknowledged that the new government appears to be holding course, and there will be opportunity to access policy support. “I think you could argue that some of the missed opportunities from previous policy announcements won’t be made going forward,” she added.
She also drew attention to the challenges that still remain, such as cost, grid connection, access to water, offtake, and infrastructure. However, despite these barriers, Sally reiterated the progress that has been made in identifying what ‘good’ looks like in hydrogen, and the consequent opportunities to leverage this learning and focus on developing successful projects, targeting investment and resources in the right areas.
HOW CAN
PROJECTS SUPPORT GOVERNMENT AMBITION AND SECURE FUNDING?
One project in particular that is significant for the Humber’s hydrogen efforts is Project Union, which, according to National Gas, will: “Repurpose existing gas transmission pipelines and build new pipelines to create a hydrogen ‘backbone’ for the UK.”
As such, companies across the North-East, Humber and Yorkshire region are being encouraged to install hydrogen production facilities to enable them to connect to Project Union once operational.
The recent HAR2 application process also shows there is an increased appetite for localised hydrogen production. David Gill, Business Development Director at N-Gen, shared the companies experience of the HAR1 and HAR2 process and emphasised the importance for others in the Humber to consider acting now.
He said: “There are things you need to take into consideration when you’re going through the program, and what we’ve done with all our bids is make sure the stakeholders, not just the offtakers, are taken on that journey. So that’s planners, that’s local MPs, that’s local authorities, and we do that all the way through.”
With HAR3 on the horizon, David drew attention to N-Gen’s 35MW green hydrogen production facility in Bradford, which is the biggest scheme to have received funding in the government’s HAR1 funding.
Using electrolysis, the site will produce around 12.5 tonnes of low hydrogen daily, enough to fuel 800 buses. The site also benefits from on-site hydrogen storage, and will deliver hydrogen to fleet operators and large industrial users of gas in West Yorkshire. Site Commissioning and production is anticipated to commence in 2027.
David noted that linking hydrogen production sites into hydrogen networks brings about resilience and connectivity, which will in turn attract investment: “The ultimate aim here is to attract investment, but also minimise the cost to the UK taxpayer to get this done, and I think that’s where we need to start talking.”
Ultimately, David emphasised that projects should take offtakers and stakeholders along on the journey, and strive to aid the government in meeting their 2030 goal of 10GW of green hydrogen production capacity by 2030 by making projects as attractive as possible to investors.
“We’ve got a model here which has been created for promoting green hydrogen. What we can do as an industry is look at how we can enhance that program, make it better, make it investable. Government has doubled down on their commitment, they put money behind these infrastructure projects. So we need to think about how we as an industry can help DESNZ achieve that goal.”
SUPPORTING THE HYDROGEN VALUE CHAIN
Certainly then, getting to the point of green hydrogen production requires a collaborative approach, though not only when it comes to supporting policy, but also in bringing together members of the supply chain to bring hydrogen projects to fruition.
Andy Lane, UK & Ireland Hydrogen Lead at Siemens, expressed that supporting the industry to work together comes with an initial understanding that some of the players are less experienced and require support to bring out their full potential in the hydrogen value chain.
He explained how Siemens are playing their part to upskill the industry: “We recognise that renewable energy, energy storage, and hydrogen are relatively new industries, and we engage with the catapult centers and the universities working in those fields as early as possible to support the new companies in the UK building products for us. We work alongside them and lend our expertise.”
Siemens are working with various companies on the different components of a typical green hydrogen plant, from electrolysis and hydrogen purification, through to storage, distribution, and usage.
Working with players such as ITM, HiiROC, Unicat Technologies, Haskell, and Chesterfield Special Cylinders, each segment of the hydrogen value chain is supported to come together and create successful hydrogen projects.
This is just a snapshot of the value chain that we’ve got available here in the UK right now to build plants.
To illustrate what could be possible in the Humber, Andy highlighted a project in East Germany, WUN H2 GmbH. As one of the largest PEM hydrogen production plants in the country, the facility generates a reliable supply of up to 1,350 tons of green hydrogen per year, saving 13,500 tons of CO2 compared to conventional hydrogen generation.
“The plant in East Germany is supplying electrical energy based on green hydrogen produced from renewable sources to the village. Green hydrogen is used to provide grid stability, so we take the wind energy, create green hydrogen, and then stabilise the grid for the village.
“Any additional offtake goes to a local chemical plant to help decarbonise industry. Siemens fully built, maintain, and operate this plant as a demonstration of what can be achieved.”
WHAT IS THE VISION FOR 2030 AND BEYOND?
With much of the day’s conversation revolving around policy, Chris Verity, Hydrogen Senior Projects Manager at Northern Gas Networks, added to this dialogue during the panel discussion.
“We shouldn’t underestimate the maturity, the depth of strategy, and policy we’ve got in the UK, from looking at the innovation and the technical challenges through to business models and market frameworks, and talking to international companies and the projects we do on international evidence gathering,” he said.
“We are quite mature at this, and there’s a lot of detail in what we’re doing, we’re covering all aspects. But one thing we’ve got to start is to actually achieve the dates we set.”
Of course, all of the plants and infrastructure projects within the region are directly advancing towards the Humber 2030 Vision, and Chris McClane, Interface Manager for Energy Transition at Centrica, urged the importance of having a deadline.
That’s the key date, but after that, we know we’re going to need to build out this infrastructure even further.
He said: “The Humber 2030 Vision is amazing. Looking at the large scale infrastructure that’s needed to make this all happen, whether it be in the Humber or on a national level, these are all large projects. They’re all multi billion pound projects, and they take a long time to develop.
While the focus has been on hydrogen production in terms of policy framework and regulatory support, these projects can sometimes take up to a decade to become operational, and in that sense, time is running out.
“I think the willingness and the Humber is pulling together to try and meet those targets, but going back to policy and locking that investment in the Humber and nationwide, I think we are running out of time.”
Jade Fernandez, Head of Stakeholder Engagement at SSE Thermal, added that the industry needs to look beyond 2030 as well, and that it’s important to have an initial target to trigger activity.
“I think it’s important to look at 2030 and beyond. Without a date to work towards, things just slip away. That’s the key date, but after that, we know we’re going to need to build out this infrastructure even further.”
Finally, William Joyce, Senior Consultant at Arup, added that on the run up to and post 2030, the Humber must fit in with the other infrastructure projects being built throughout the nation, and the region’s role within the wider UK hydrogen economy is something to look forward to.
He said: “We’ve got five other clusters in the UK who are all looking to deliver as those largest six industrial clusters from the DESNZ industrial clusters mission, so it’ll be really interesting to see how the Humber will stack up against HyNet, Scotland and Solent and Teesside as well, so I think it’s quite exciting.”
The Humber is no doubt an exceptionally important asset to the UK and carries huge potential to significantly reduce emissions and help reach climate targets, and its role in the hydrogen economy presents unique opportunities for economic growth and decarbonisation on a colossal scale.
To join the conversation, the HIL 100 Breakfast Hub series will be returning in 2025, and bringing more of the industry’s key players together to share their insights and highlight the opportunities to help grow the hydrogen economy, both regionally and across the wider UK.
For more information visit hydrogenindustryleaders.com/breakfast-hub/
TOYOTA PORTABLE HYDROGEN CARTRIDGES
A PRACTICAL AND ACCESSIBLE DECARBONISATION SOLUTION
With projects being developed around the world and the global hydrogen economy taking shape, hydrogen is positioning itself as a major player in the energy transition. While the use case for hydrogen is certainly strong, it is also varied, and novel approaches to maximising its potential are continuously capturing the industry’s attention.
Blending hydrogen in the grid could one day see it power our homes and industries, and its application in mobility is another highly anticipated advancement. However, the capacity to innovate goes even further than this, and the sector is starting to see some cutting-edge technologies come to fruition, promising to change the landscape of the industry and offer new and exciting solutions.
Toyota have had their finger on the hydrogen pulse for a while, and in the final quarter of 2024, took to Japan Mobility Bizweek to showcase their latest hydrogen technology developments, namely their portable hydrogen cartridges, which are slated to find use in ‘everyday situations’.
MAKING HYDROGEN ACCESSIBLE THROUGH PORTABLE CARTRIDGES
Through the automotive manufacturer’s experience in developing hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), Toyota has gone one step further in its attempt to refine this technology for use in additional applications.
The portable hydrogen cartridge came about as the company sought to reduce the size and weight of hydrogen tanks for FCEVS, resulting in a product that is compact and lightweight, enabling the user to carry it by hand.
Working with its subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings Inc, the first prototype of the portable hydrogen cartridge was created in 2022, and Proof of Concept trials of the cartridge were announced, taking place in in various locations including Woven City, a ‘human-centered smart city of the future’ located in in Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
[The portable hydrogen cartridges] are designed to make hydrogen a familiar and safe energy source that can be used in everyday situations.
While, at present, hydrogen remains a relatively far removed concept for the general public, the cartridge demonstrates the possibility for its use at a much closer proximity, and seeks to transform the perception of hydrogen as something that is convenient, safe to use, and ultimately, familiar.
It also offers a unique solution to the refuelling challenge for FCEVs at a time when infrastructure is still few and far between due to the cost of hydrogen pipelines. The cartridges create a rechargeable and swappable option for drivers to use on the go, reducing their reliance on infrastructure and decreasing EV downtime.
However, despite Toyota’s expertise in revolutionising automobiles, the cartridge boasts a much broader use case, including in home appliances, as demonstrated at Japan Mobility Bizweek, which took place from October 15 to October 18 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture.
Toyota is looking to find matches with technologies and ideas from companies and startups in different fields, including both service provision and the development and sale of devices using the cartridges.
Toyota and the Rinnai Corporation exhibited the cartridge through its use to power a stove. The cartridge system is capable of burning hydrogen gas to cook with, or by generating electricity in a fuel cell.
The versatile nature of hydrogen in its ability to be used as a combustion fuel or generate electricity makes it a key player in Toyota’s multi-path strategy towards realising a carbon-neutral society.
Furthermore, while the company seeks to embrace diverse viable energy options, it considers hydrogen to be the ultimate clean energy not only for its adaptability, but for its potential to be produced cleanly through renewable energy sources.
TOYOTA’S LIQUID HYDROGEN-POWERED GR COROLLA EXEMPLIFIES SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION
Of course, Toyota were also keen to draw attention to their automotive prowess by displaying their Corolla race car, which runs on gaseous hydrogen.
Having initially debuted in 2021, the technology has been used in a GR Corolla competing in endurance events in Japan and elsewhere in Asia since 2023.
Japan Mobility Bizweek gave the company a platform to display the actual competition vehicle, demonstrating how Toyota continues to use motorsport to develop ‘ever-better’ road cars, as well as building individual and team skills, and partnering with industry, government, and academic bodies to secure carbon neutrality.
As 2025 commences, the industry is entering the new year having observed how companies like Toyota are innovating with hydrogen, both in mobility and in the numerous other applications that their portable cartridge technology facilitates.
Making hydrogen accessible to the masses in this way has interesting implications for the approach households around the world take to their individual decarbonisation journeys, and as the year ahead unfolds, it will be interesting to see how the sector responds to this cutting edge technology, and what further possibilities will be innovated to maximise its potential in 2025 and beyond.
EXPLORING AMMONIA AS AN ANSWER TO THE HYDROGEN STORAGE DEBATE
WITH DR MARTIN OWEN JONES FROM ISIS NEUTRON AND MUON SOURCE
Q. Why is ammonia, in your opinion, a solution to the current storage challenges that we face with hydrogen?
Martin: Ammonia is the material that we can do everything we need to do with at the moment. Everybody knows how to deal with it, everybody knows how to synthesise it, everybody knows how to store it. Millions of tonnes of it is shipped around the world every year. And it’s chock full of hydrogen. And because it’s so easy to manufacture and so easy to store, if we have a surfeit of sustainable energy, then it is one of the most obvious ways of storing that sustainable energy as chemical energy until it’s required.
That’s why it’s the solution to the current storage challenge, because we can do everything we want to do with it right now. It might not be the solution because there are other ways to do that storage which perhaps, in the long term, are better. People might say we should start investing in longer term storage methods as well. In the long term, I think it will just be hydrogen. I think eventually everything will be in the right place and hydrogen will become the most appropriate method for storing that energy. But I think at the moment we’re not quite there. And if we require an intermediate solution, then ammonia to me seems to be the best way to go.
Q. Despite those benefits, what are its challenges and how can they be sort of overcome?
Martin: Look at the chemical properties of ammonia. It is a pretty dangerous chemical to handle and use in large quantities, which is why I suspect it will never be a solution for individual private vehicles, simply because of that hazard associated with it. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for massive storage because there everything can be very tightly controlled and experts can be hired to handle that ammonia in large volumes. And I think that is a perfectly achievable scenario.
Everything can be very tightly controlled and experts can be hired to handle that ammonia in large volumes.
Working in partnerships really is vital to achieve goals, especially when the outputs are so industrially relevant.
Q. How do partnerships facilitate progress?
Martin: It’s a bit of a cliche nowadays, but people always say it takes a village to raise a child. And the same is true for science, and any piece of science takes a huge collaborative effort across many different expertise. Working in partnerships really is vital to achieve goals, especially when the outputs are so industrially relevant. So if you have an industry that is waiting for new breakthroughs in areas whether that be hydrogen or batteries, then you really need to get the experts involved so you can accelerate that research at a rate that means it’s technologically interesting to the companies that perhaps would like to invest in that output.
Q. What is your outlook on the future of hydrogen in the UK, and what’s the route to achieving that?
Martin: If I look 50 years into the future in my crystal ball, I would like to think that the UK would have a hydrogen economy, and by that I would think that all of the electricity generated in the UK would be from hydrogen or hydrides, perhaps ammonia, and industry would have direct pipes of hydrogen delivered to it for use either in fuel cells or combusting. There would be turbines working on hydrogen. I don’t think we’ll all get hydrogen powered cars simply because the OEMs have made the decision to invest in batteries, and I think they would want to see an established hydrogen economy before they think about switching to hydrogen. And so, I would like to hope that that is where the UK is. I would like to hope that perhaps 85% plus of our energy is sustainable, and all of that energy goes into making hydrogen which is stored, at low cost somewhere in the UK and then used by everybody.
But of course getting there is the problem, isn’t it? It’s a long pathway to get there and it requires significant investment from the government as well as from interested industries, and it’s easy to see how that pathway might break down. And so we have to build bridges that take us there, that are on the same pathway as hydrogen, and that’s why I think ammonia is such an important material because it’s an obvious and evident and easy pathway, a first step towards the future hydrogen economy. Because once we’re in the hydrogen economy, then every industrial process, every domestic process is carbon zero. And then we really can start to think about what we do about our destroyed climate now, how do we turn it to what it was like 50 years ago?
I think ammonia is such an important material because it’s an obvious and evident and easy pathway, a first step towards the future hydrogen economy.
Q. What’s next for ISIS and for you?
Martin: For ISIS there’s two big things. Recently we received £90 million from the government for the Endeavour programme, which is a suite of new instrumentation which is to look at modern materials, to look at energy materials and to look at medicine and diagnostic tools. And so we will be building new instruments specifically to address the challenge, the 21st century challenges in those areas. After that, well ISIS was built in 1985. I don’t want to say the word old but we are, and so we’re thinking about ISIS 2, which is the second generation ISIS, and what we’re thinking about is about a new particle accelerator for generating neutrons.
I think my main focus is going to be on amine materials over the next 10 years. Of all the things I’ve worked on, these ammonia storage materials and heat transfer materials are some of the most interesting things, but you know a lot of these materials are unknown, and I think that is something I’d really like to investigate, and because they have such a strong industrial potential, that’s what really motivates me to work on them because the outcomes are potentially so positive.
