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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number	NIA_WWU_2_16
Title	Hydrogen for Industrial Estate Heating
Status	Completed
Energy Categories	Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Refining, transport and storage of oil and gas) 10%; Hydrogen and Fuel Cells(Hydrogen, Other infrastructure and systems R&D) 80%; Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Energy Economics) 10%;
Research Types	Applied Research and Development 100%
Science and Technology Fields	ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering) 90%; ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment) 10%;
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation	Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Energy modelling) 100%
Principal Investigator	Project Contact No email address given Wales and West Utilities
Award Type	Network Innovation Allowance
Funding Source	Ofgem
Start Date	01 November 2022
End Date	31 January 2023
Duration	ENA months
Total Grant Value	£63,608
Industrial Sectors	Energy
Region	Wales
Programme	Network Innovation Allowance
Investigators	Principal Investigator	Project Contact , Wales and West Utilities (100.000%)
	Industrial Collaborator	Project Contact , Wales and West Utilities (0.000%)
Web Site	https://smarter.energynetworks.org/projects/NIA_WWU_2_16
Objectives	"Heating an operational facility/warehouse in a cost effective yet low carbon way is needed to help achieve the UKs Net Zero targets. New developments to house small and medium sized businesses are already becoming dependent on heating and power consumption being carbon neutral to gain planning permission. With the vast array of work going on within the industrial clusters, aimed at decarbonising heavy industry, the industrial estate landscape runs the risk of being left behind and falling further down the decarbonisation priority list. WWU is aware of relatively new Thermal Plasma Electrolysis technology to create hydrogen from a specific provider that has a small footprint and on demand usage. The technology utilises novel processes for carbon capture and can be applied in remote locations that have a natural gas supply. It is necessary to understand on an individual building scale what the possibilities of applying this technology are, if hydrogen can be utilised for this type of building and what the associated land and building requirements may be. This project will undertake a feasibility study to understand the following aspects of integrating thermal plasma electrolysis technology: 1.Assessment of demand for a typical industrial unit for a range of use cases 2. Current methods of heating typical industrial units, with associated CAPEX and OPEX costs 3. A case study for the implementation of thermal plasma electrolysis technology into a representative industrial unit to identify requirements for: 4. Hydrogen heating solution technology 5. Ancillary technology such as control instrumentation and storage 6. Natural gas and electricity supply 7. Design constraints including system footprint, proximity distances, and utilities 8. CAPEX and OPEX costs for system build and operation (incl. major civils) 9. Assessment of benefits (carbon saving, financial and other) against reasonable comparisons 10. Commercial opportunity associated with carbon black biproduct Potential expansion of the unit to provide enduring hydrogen for heating for an entire industrial estate and application of use across other areas e.g., transport. Data quality statement Apollo verify and validate data through multiple sources. Any vendor or OEM data used will be clearly attributed to source. All assumptions will be clearly documented within the report. Any potential data quality issues will be clearly stated. Data will be stored and protected within Apollos electronic document management systems which is Cyber Essentials compliant, ensuring protection and privacy of data. Measurement quality statement The study basis of scope (design) sets out and references all potential project data sources. These are approved by competent resource before further assessment is undertaken by the project. Any data generated by the project is subject to Apollos checking and approval process as defined in Apollos integrated assurance manual 006-004-002H. The project is rated low in the common assessment framework detailed in the ENIP document after assessing the total project value, the progression through the TRL levels, the number of project delivery partners and the medium level of data assumptions. No additional peer review is required for this project." "Current status quo: An assessment of the demand for a typical industrial unit for a range of use cases will be completed. This project will focus on the use of gas as an energy vector. It is envisaged that there will be three use cases, which will be defined during the initial project setup and related to demand profile. The use case will be described and high-level gas usage data obtained. This will be documented within the study report deliverable and will inform the next task to review the current heating technologies. The use cases will form a series of scenarios that will help to form the basis of the high-level CAPEX and OPEX evaluation. The study will capture the full range of technologies. To appraise the current methods/technologies the following will be highlighted: 1. Description 2. Key elements 3. Pro/cons 4. CAPEX and OPEX based on up to three scenarios New technology appraisal: A high level market engagement exercise to review current thermal plasma electrolysis technology to capture key elements to feed into the case study. This will include the following: 1. Initial vendor conversation 2. Likely NDA and detailed information sharing 3. High level appraisal of commercial readiness Case study: Collating the information from the previous two tasks, a case study will be developed based on a current industrial unit requirement. As per the scope the following will be detailed: 1. Technology requirements for a hydrogen heating solution 2. Requirements for ancillary technology such as control instrumentation and storage 3. Natural gas and electricity supply requirements 4. Design constraints including system footprint, proximity distances, and utilities 5. CAPEX and OPEX costs for system build and operation (incl. major civils) 6. Assessment of benefits (carbon saving, financial and other) against reasonable comparisons 7. Commercial opportunity associated with carbon black biproduct. Expansion opportunities: Following the case study development, a review of the ability for the potential expansion of the technology to provide enduring hydrogen for heating for an entire industrial estate alongside exploring application of use across other areas e.g., transport. For this task two high-level cases will be analysed: 1. Discrete system for each of the estate users i.e. can be upscaled as appropriate across an entire estate 2. Single unit to provide hydrogen to the entire estate user base Expansion opportunities will also be looked at with regards to other users for example transport, and what supplementary infrastructure would be required to facilitate. Specifically where transport might require additional compression/storage. There is a lot of ongoing work to identify the most effective route to meet net zero in the UK and this project is one of many projects to evidence the major or minor role hydrogen will have in different scenarios. Repurposing the UK gas networks with hydrogen to support the challenge of the climate change act has the potential to save £millions with minimal gas customer disruption verses alternative decarbonisation solutions" To investigate the feasibility of new Thermal Plasma Electrolysis technology to create hydrogen that has a small footprint and on demand usage, which could be used to heat buildings on industrial estates
Abstract	WWU is aware of relatively new Thermal Plasma Electrolysis technology to create hydrogen from a specific provider that has a small footprint and on demand usage. The technology utilises novel processes for carbon capture and can be applied in remote locations that have a natural gas supply. It is necessary to understand on an individual building scale what the possibilities of applying this technology are, if hydrogen can be utilised for this type of building and what the associated land and building requirements may be. This project will undertake a feasibility study to understand integrating thermal plasma electrolysis technology in relation to industrial units via assessment of typical demand for a range of use cases. current methods of heating with associated costs, and a case study for the implementation of the technology into a representative industrial unit with potential expansion to an entire industrial estate and application of use across other areas e.g., transport.
Publications	(none)
Final Report	(none)
Added to Database	01/11/23