Low carbon hydrogen will play a significant role in the future energy mix. Initiatives like the Hydrogen Valley programme exist to help the UK accelerate rollout, understand where hydrogen is best placed to support the energy transition, and demonstrate the appetite for investment in the renewable gas. Regional initiatives like the Hydrogen Valley help to map supply and demand locally, to better support the transition.
This article outlines how the Hydrogen Valley helps to make the case for hydrogen across the middle of England, and how our members help us to achieve these objectives.
The case for the Midlands
The Midlands has a wealth of history that has contributed a huge amount to the nation’s prosperity. The region is the heart of British manufacturing, dating back to the Middle Ages, with historical ties to power generation, automotives, manufacturing, metal processing, and more. These days, it’s home to nationally leading research institutions, particularly those focusing on the development of a hydrogen economy.
The Hydrogen Valley programme recognises how special the region is, and the potential it holds to use its industrial strength to power a future green energy revolution. The initiative has identified the key organisations across the region that have the power to harness the region’s capabilities, and we’re working closely with them to understand the role hydrogen can play in transforming the local economy.
Our advocates
We’re proud to work with organisations that champion the future of hydrogen. These include both public and private sector organisations that could play a number of roles in a future hydrogen economy. Our members include:
- Hydrogen producers
- Midstream activities, assisting with the transportation or storage of hydrogen
- Future hydrogen consumers/offtakers
- Public and third sector organisations that can provide academic expertise, consultancy, research and development (R&D) support, and more.
Hydrogen producers
Our hydrogen producers are companies working to create hydrogen or hydrogen-based fuels that could power industries across the Hydrogen Valley corridor. Levidian, for example, is a world-leading climate tech business with a technology centre based in Cambridge. They capture the carbon from methane before it’s burned and can use this to produce hydrogen to decarbonise businesses at scale.
Meanwhile, Tyseley Energy Park is working to kickstart the hydrogen economy in the West Midlands by producing green hydrogen. Another of our key upstream advocates, Summit Energy Evolution, is actively involved in the Bacton Energy Hub. Summit Energy Evolution will play a crucial role in the programme, exploring how hydrogen from the hub can be transported to the Hydrogen Valley region to help meet local energy demand.
Midstream advocates
Our midstream advocates are key to kickstarting the hydrogen economy across the regions that make up the Hydrogen Valley area. Midstream organisations will help to provide the necessary infrastructure, services, and products needed for the creation of a hydrogen distribution network.
The Hydrogen Valley programme is being delivered in collaboration by Cadent and National Gas, two of the UK’s largest gas networks. Cadent’s gas distribution network is the largest in the UK, serving the North West, West Midlands, East Midlands, South Yorkshire, East of England, and North London. National Gas owns and operates the high-pressure gas transmission network in Great Britain. These two organisations are crucial to provide the infrastructure that will transport hydrogen safely and efficiently to key offtakers across the region.
Wales & West Utilities harbour the existing gas infrastructure across Wales and the South West of the UK and are actively seeking how to enable a widespread clean energy transition, including exploring the role that hydrogen could play in delivering this.
Our midstream advocates also consist of companies specialising in the creation of valves, fluid system components, and ancillary equipment such as Swagelok and Northern Valve & Fitting Company Limited. These organisations are needed to help ensure the safe storage and transportation of hydrogen across the region and assist in the manufacturing of hydrogen products.
Consumers and downstream advocates
Our downstream advocates consist of businesses with a strong presence in the programme region that are eager to benefit from the opportunities hydrogen can offer to decarbonise their industries.
From food manufacturing to aviation, building materials to tabletop ceramics, hydrogen can offer a cost-effective, low carbon solution for businesses with high heat or high energy consuming processes, where electrification may not be feasible. Churchill, as an example, have manufactured tableware for the professional, serving hospitality markets since 1795. With a high reliance on natural gas in their production processes, hydrogen access can help them and their sector to transition to alternative, cleaner fuel sources across their operations.
Michelmersh, one of our newest members, owns seven market-leading premium brick manufacturing brands. The process of brick production often involves heating clay to high temperatures. Michelmersh is leading the way in creating more sustainable construction materials with the world's first 100% hydrogen-fired clay brick. HyBrick will see hydrogen used in the clay brick production process at Michelmersh’s Freshfield Lane site, and low carbon hydrogen supply from the Hydrogen Valley region will bring them one step closer to making the project a success.
Public and third sector advocates
Similar to our midstream advocates, our public and third sector advocates provide a wealth of capabilities that will help to establish the foundations of the hydrogen economy within the region. These members consist of educational institutions, consultancies, regional partnerships, local authorities and other bodies dedicated to driving sustainable growth.
These members can provide vital research, resources, partnerships and investment to help progress innovation within the hydrogen sector, and kickstart a thriving hydrogen economy within the region. The Birmingham Energy Institute combines Birmingham University’s wealth of research capabilities with technological innovation and works with us to help overcome barriers to hydrogen deployment within the region.
HyCymru is collaborating with stakeholders across the supply chain to help bring the Welsh hydrogen economy from conceptualisation to a reality. This includes fostering partnerships between utilities, consultants, manufacturers, researchers, planning, community enterprise, and more.
CR Plus is a consultancy that is very active in the Hydrogen Valley region and thus are part of our third sector advocate list. The organisation specialises in working with individual companies to help them explore the best and most cost-effective route to decarbonisation, de-risking their transition journey. The organisation is instrumental at exploring best use cases for hydrogen across various industries and are helping to make the case for hydrogen within the future energy mix.
Conclusion
A successful, self-sustaining, thriving hydrogen economy is possible. However, its foundations rely on collaboration and participation from organisations across the hydrogen value chain. Initiatives like the Hydrogen Valley programme help to bring together a range of capabilities to create a coherent vision for hydrogen deployment, helping to uncover the potential that the technology has to decarbonise our energy supply.
