Hydrogen Round Table

The Centre of Expertise in Advanced Materials and Sustainability (CEAMS) is a collaboration between key partners to help and support businesses to commercialise a sustainable material(s) and / or develop an innovative idea to make the materials they use sustainable.

CEAMS is facilitating a series of roundtables to create a strong community of advanced manufacturers based in Rochdale and the surrounding areas. This will enable sharing of best practice, collaboration and increased innovation.

The second roundtable was held at the Henry Royce Institute and focused on the hydrogen related opportunities for the sector.

The event started with a welcome from Professor Ian Kinloch, the incoming Chief Scientist for Royce (www.royce.ac.uk).  Funded by EPSRC Royce is the UK National Institute for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation It was set up to support the UK Materials research community  and provides access to researchers including industry, training and skills, and now also offers roadmapping services. In addition to funded access schemes for researcher, SME’s and the Industrial Collaboration Programme (ICP)-Round 4 provides funding for collaborative research. I

Hydrogen roadmapping has been essential to establish where best practice currently exists in the UK and to identify potential gaps and areas for development.

The four key challenge areas in relation to hydrogen are: production, storage, distribution and end use. Workstreams and discussions are active in all these areas, covering issues such as scarcity of materials, adapting traditional infrastructure, electrolysis, composite storage, cryogenics, compression and liquifying, transportation, fuel cells and heating.

The Royce runs a Hydrogen Accelerator programme to establish new technologies and get these out to the market (both domestic and international) as soon as possible

Opening out to a broader discussion, attendees explored the various reasons why businesses are hesitant to use or invest in hydrogen technologies. Whilst these vary between sector and organisation, a number of key themes emerged.

  • Safety concerns. There are still misconceptions around hydrogen, exacerbated by negative media coverage. The cancellation of pilot projects, such as Hydrogen Homes, may give the impression it is not a viable solution.

  •  Skills. The UK does not have the talent pipeline or sufficient upskilling activity, to fill the jobs created within the hydrogen economy (leading to a project gap of at least 9000 direct jobs).  There is a lack of both awareness and expertise with hydrogen in all areas.

  •  A lack of knowledge about all aspects of the hydrogen economy including: colours of hydrogen (what they mean, and when we should use different ones); where the opportunities are (industry is by far the biggest sector to benefit, but transport and residential development often get more coverage); potential returns on investment; and political will and if this will change if a new government is elected.

 

  • Regulatory framework. This is not yet well developed, leading to further uncertainty about what is required now and what may be required in the future.  

  • Supply chain. Concerns around the availability of hydrogen (particularly green / low carbon hydrogen) and the materials required (e.g. a two year lead in time for PM membrane)

     

  • Infrastructure. There is not yet a joined up system to produce, transport and store hydrogen across the UK, nor a clear strategy for how this will be developed.

    Moving on to discuss what can be done to encourage business to exploit the opportunities of hydrogen, there were several key asks.

  •  Investment into upskilling and adapting existing apprenticeships (e.g. plumbing) to include hydrogen.

     

  • Amplification of hydrogen success stories, including lessons learned along the way. There are lots of brilliant examples across the UK that would benefit from having a single platform or forum. 

  • Regulatory and/or tax incentives, and for more funders and VCs to ask about net zero plans. It was noted that heavy industry is not being pushed on this at present. The UK could also do more to incentivise companies to commercialise in the country.

  • Longer term support. There are currently short windows for funding (typically 1 to 2 year programmes) and a backdrop of political and economic uncertainty. Longer term financial support would give confidence in innovation.   

Despite these very real challenges, there was a sense of optimism in the room. The UK, and Greater Manchester in particular, has all the components required to maximise the opportunities in the hydrogen economy. To be successful, everyone involved in the industry needs to collaborate to amplify positive stories, drive national infrastructure and upskill the workforce.

For further information on CEAMS please or contact Michelle McHugh, Business Development Manager, Rochdale Development Agency.   

Materials of the future for a sustainable world