Energy Transition Outlook 2019

Hydrogen for heating Currently the heating requirements of 85% of the 27 million homes in the UK are largely met by natural gas. This is also true of many businesses and manufacturing industry. Developing a realistic substitute that will be accepted by both business and household consumers is a priority and hydrogen clearly has considerable potential in this respect. Several feasibility studies and demonstration projects highlight the scope for using hydrogen in heating systems, either through by blending hydrogen with gas supplies in the current gas network, or through the development of dedicated hydrogen networks. One of the important benefits from the consumer perspective is that appliances using hydrogen would look very similar to today’s technology and are unlikely to require a significant upfront cost or difference in performance. This makes hydrogen more suitable for retrofitting in a significant part of the existing building stock. Hydrogen in transport Unlike in heating, where it will be combusted in the same way as natural gas, hydrogen in transport will more likely be via fuel cells to produce electricity. In fact, hydrogen-powered vehicles are likely to be equipped with both a hydrogen fuel cell and a lithium-ion battery. The use of hydrogen has advantages in terms of reducing the weight of the battery needed and also increasing the range before a recharge

or refill of hydrogen is necessary. The shorter duration process for refilling with hydrogen also reduces the space requirement for refuelling making it similar to today’s infrastructure. Hydrogen-fuelled transport is particularly suitable for heavier duty vehicles of more intensive usage requirements in terms of distance travelled and loads transported. This points towards heavy freight and long-distance passenger travel, although hydrogen may also be a favoured choice for personal vehicles by some users. Hydrogen is also a suitable feedstock for producing low-carbon synthetic fuels for marine and air transport. Hydrogen production Hydrogen is already produced at industrial scale across the UK and Europe as a feedstock for chemicals and other products. It is estimated that between 10–27TWh is currently used in the UK. This production will need to expand more than ten-fold in order to meet the CCC projections for 2050 in support of the net-zero economy. The majority of this will initially have to be produced through the reformation of natural gas. This provides an ample diversification opportunity for the oil and gas industry into the hydrogen sector, which itself is expected to be a market worth £1.9 trillion globally by 2050. 12 Hydrogen can also be created through electrolysis using renewable power generation. This may progressively grow to be a large proportion of the hydrogen production mix if

12 Scaling Up Hydrogen (Hydrogen Council, 2017)

33