in December the ministry also cancelled progression of a village-scale hydrogen trial at Winlaton near Redcar, pictured.

Officials now believe the low carbon gas, in either its fossil-fuel-derived blue hue, or the cleaner green variety electrolysed with wind-generated electricity, may have a role to play in heat decarbonisation, but in slower time and in only ‘some’ locations.

D-ESNZ plans to take a final decision in 2026, after assessing evidence including from a neighbourhood-scale hydrogen trial in Fife and other studies across Europe.

Britain’s four main operators of gas networks have lobbied Whitehall hard for hydrogen to be viewed as a panacea, a high convenience, low cost replacement for methane-heavy, climate-wrecking ‘natural’ gas in Britain’s 30 million homes.

In October 2022, the then D-BEIS ministry invited the four to commit to operational trials, leading to mass deployment.  All four responded with business plans.

But the hydrogen drive had been opposed as impractical, manipulative and still polluting by advocates for electric heat.

One immediately welcomed Whitehall’s backtracking yesterday.  James Standley, chief technical officer of Truro-based Kensa, Britain’s only manufacturer of heat pumps, and a company part-owned by Octopus Energy,  said abandoning the village-scale trial was “further recognition that hydrogen has no major role to play in future home heating”.

“Every academic study on the issue, the economics and the physics demonstrates this”, Standley went on. “The government should now take the next logical step and rule out hydrogen heating for anything other than a small number of very specific cases.

Electrification, whether via heat pumps or heat networks, remains the best and quickest way to achieve clean heat while ensuring the best outcomes for consumers, Standley opined.

“The longer hydrogen remains part of the conversation”, the Kensa boss said, “the further the transition will be delayed, hampering the speed at which these already proven technologies are rolled out.”

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The company believes its new knowledge developed in-house could open the path to synthesise green transport fuels, such as eKerosene, eMethanol and other specialised chemicals.

Veolia’s new process uses advanced amine technology to capture carbon from the burning of non-recyclable biogenic waste. The material is present in about 60% of CO2 emissions generated when such garbage is burned.

The resulting biogenic CO2 can be combined with green hydrogen to create fuels such as eMethanol and Sustainable Aviation Fuel, reducing the carbon intensity of shipping and air travel.

Conducted at ten specialist sites, the pilot is intended now to assess if the firm’s pioneering technology can indeed capture and store a potential 100,000 tonnes per year from all Veolia’s UK plants.

At stake in theory is the goal of carbon-negative power generation and fuel output, at a scale capable of eliminating the carbon footprint of Veolia’s waste processing for its clients, Britain’s local councils.

The company’s process begins by purifying gases cooled at the plants’ flues. Then an amine solvent captures their CO₂. This is heated with steam produced from the plant’s furnace, a process yielding rich streams of CO_2, while also regenerating the solvent for circling back into the absorption process.

The CO₂ is dried and compressed to produce a near-pure stream, which can be stored or used to create new products such as clean fuels.

Donald Macphail is Veolia’s manager leading the tests. He said: “This latest innovation marks a major step forward for us.

“This development, combined with greater recycling and the removal of plastics from waste streams,  will further reduce carbon emissions from our facilities, while making a major contribution to  meeting Net Zero targets”, McPhail added.

Veolia’s ten ERF plants nationwide already take around 2.3 million tonnes of non-recyclable waste and transform it into electricity for over 400,000 homes, and this combined generating capacity of 180MW.

Some of the ten also produce heat for district heating networks, using CHP technology.

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Oxford Flow will provide hydrogen-ready gas pressure regulators, smaller and lighter than their natural gas equivalents.  The devices will be used to test decommissioned gas pipelines with 100% pure hydrogen.

Zero-emissions hydrogen is seen as the cheapest, most direct remedy to methane-dependent ‘natural’ gas. Domestic heating alone accounts for 37% of all UK carbon emissions.

Modern gas appliances are designed to operate with blends of up to 23% hydrogen. But recent small trials such as  Northern Gas Networks’ HyDeploy pilot in Gateshead have needed dispensation from Ofgem.

That’s because current rules dating from 1996 limit the gas’s concentration to a miniscule 0.1% over public grids.  The guidelines are scheduled for revision this year under the government’s Hydrogen Strategy.

Oxford Flow’s regulators are designed to make the retrofitting of existing gas systems easier and to reduce future maintenance.

With other gas distribution networks, SGN has ambitions to develop the world’s first zero-carbon gas grid. It will be based on existing pipelines which the firm manages, delivering both natural and low carbon gas to six million homes and businesses across southern England and Scotland.

Gemma Simpson, SGN’s director of LTS Futures, pictured left, said: “Our project will enable wide-scale system transformation of the UK gas network to hydrogen, driving decarbonisation and supporting our Net Zero goals. We are excited to be partnering with Oxford Flow to use this latest innovation as we transition to clean energy.

“Using Oxford Flow’s valves and regulators will help establish a hydrogen-ready solution for pressure regulating equipment. They will not only future proof our systems by being hydrogen ready and tested, but also by removing leak points common in valves to reduce emissions.”

Later this year SGN’s LTS Futures team will join with Oxford Flow’s field technicians to test samples of decommissioned pipe at an industry research and testing facility in Spadeadam in Cumbria.

The test results will inform the next stage of the LTS Futures project, a live hydrogen repurposing trial and demonstration next year, using a decommissioned pipeline at Grangemouth.

For Oxford Flow, Faris Churcher, pictured centre, said: “We’re delighted to be working with SGN as part of the LTS Futures project. When conversations began, the focus was on efficacy of pipeline infrastructure and its ability to transport hydrogen. However, the pipelines themselves are not the only infrastructure – or equipment – that needs careful consideration.”

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The two technologies have been deployed off Orkney in a four-month pilot, providing low carbon power and communication to infrastructure including Baker Hughes’ subsea controls equipment and a resident underwater robot vehicle provided by Transmark Subsea.

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has supplied kit to measure speed and direction of currents during the deployment.  Wave Energy Scotland gave £160,000 to support the integration of the umbilical cord into the wave energy converter.

The RSP pilot project aims to show how green technologies can combine to provide reliable low carbon power and communications under the waves. Proponents hope setups such as the RSP will deliver cost-effective alternatives to umbilical cables, which are carbon intensive with long lead times to make and install.

Deployment off Orkney is the third phase of the RSP project. Consortium partners supporting it include Harbour Energy and Serica Energy. Each phase of the programme has also been supported by grant funding from the Hollyrood- and Westminster-supported Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC), formerly known as the Oil and Gas Technology Centre.

In 2021 the consortium invested £1.6 million into phase two of the programme – which saw the successful integration of the core technologies in an onshore commissioning test environment at Verlume’s plant in Aberdeen.

The entire system is now undergoing sea trials 5 km east of the Orkney mainland. The system’s technology readiness level is elevated to levels six to seven, in other words, system completion and qualification via testing.

Two years ago Mocean Energy’s Blue X prototype underwent sea tests at European Marine Energy Centre’s test site at Scapa Flow.  It generated its first power and provided valuable operational data. The Blue X programme was also supported by Wave Energy Scotland, its £3.3 million fostering the venture’s development, construction and testing.

“This is a natural next step for our technology,” says Cameron McNatt, Mocean Energy’s managing director. “The new test site east of Deerness offers a much more vigorous wave climate and the opportunity to demonstrate the integration of a number of technologies in real sea conditions.”

Verlume’s seabed battery energy storage system, Halo, has been specifically designed for the harsh underwater environment, reducing operational emissions and facilitating the use of renewable energy by providing a reliable, uninterrupted power supply.

Halo’s core is its intelligent energy management system, Axonn, a fully integrated system which autonomously maximises available battery capacity in real time.

Andy Martin, chief commercial officer of ten-year old Aberdeen technologists Verlume, added: “This programme is the pinnacle of the success to date in this project.

“We are very much looking forward to the Halo being deployed”, said Martin, pictured. The testing will provide a great opportunity to gather high quality performance and operational data which will support the further electrification of the subsea sector.”

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The fast-growing company intends the first demonstrator projects to be housed in a former mine in Czechia, and at a purpose-built new shaft in northern England.

In a busy month, they’ve now invited corporate finance advisors Gneiss Energy to assist in raising £40 million to bring its next steps to fruition.

“Bloomberg predicts the energy storage market will grow by 21 percent annually with total global investment of £662 billion by 2040”, the financier observed.

“Lithium batteries are inherently suited to shorter duration storage of around one to two hours; however, future energy scenarios will also require increasing amounts of longer duration capability for which lithium ion is not well suited.

“In addition, supply chain constraints and geopolitical uncertainty mean that home-grown solutions beyond batteries will be required.

“Gravitricity is developing technologies which will last for decades and can cycle rapidly between charge and discharge without any loss in performance, as well as offering long duration capabilities – all characteristics which will become increasingly valuable to grid operators as renewable penetration increases.

“In parallel, their H₂ FlexiStore taps into the rapidly growing hydrogen market offering a ‘Goldilocks’, mid-scale hydrogen storage solution, with a capacity between large scale salt caverns and much smaller above-ground storage, which is ideally sized for the industrial hydrogen hubs of the future,” Edgar says.

The company has already raised £7.5 million, around half in private investment alongside public support from the European Investment Bank (EIB), Innovate UK and BEIS.

Gravitricity’s commercial director Robin Lane added: “Gneiss is the ideal partner to help us attract the right kind of investor who will support us in this next phase of rapid growth.

“In parallel to our three pathfinder projects, we are also developing a portfolio of development sites worldwide, with project partners already in place in mainland Europe, South Africa, India, Pakistan and Chile.”

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