UK HyRES awards £3m to advance hydrogen-based innovation projects

The University of Bath’s hydrogen research hub has awarded almost £3m ($3.6m) to 10 hydrogen production storage, end use and alternative carrier projects in the UK.

Handed out through the university’s UK Hub for Research Challenges in Hydrogen and Alternative Liquid Fuels (UK HyRES), the funding is expected to support the development of hydrogen technologies in the country.

“This gives UK HyRES a comprehensive base of top-tier research expertise to help answer the key questions around how we can use hydrogen and zero-carbon alternative liquid fuels to help reach Net Zero,” said Professor Tim Mays, commenting on the funding.

UK HyRES received £11m ($11.4m) from the UK Government through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in 2023 to support the programme.

Regarding the new wave of projects, Professor Mays added, “Amounting to a total of almost £3m, the projects are funded by the hub’s flexifund and were selected from 160 original expressions of interest and a longlist of nearly 50 proposals.

“The high quality and variety of all the submissions was remarkable, and it was an incredibly difficult task to narrow down to the eventual funded projects. We look forward to future hub calls to distribute the remaining flexifund budget of around £2m.”

The 10 projects will join the 14 core initiatives already underway as part of UK HyRES. These include:

• Decoupled electrolysis of seawater – Professor Mark Symes, University of Glasgow. Aims to produce hydrogen directly from seawater to accommodate locations where freshwater supplies are limited.
• MHYSTIC – Dr. Alfonso Martinez-Felipe, University of Aberdeen. This will explore material optimisation for hydrogen storage and transport, enhance safety in long-distance transmission and assess the feasibility of repurposing North Sea offshore assets for hydrogen production, generation and storage.
• MARIO – Professor Aidong Yang, University of Oxford. Examining the potential of ammonia direct reduction and hydrogen direct reduction in steel production.
• STACI – Professor Alexander Cowan, Stephenson Institute of Renewable Energy, University of Liverpool. This aims to increase the lifetime of anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysers by developing new electrode and membrane architectures.
• Alex Walton, at the University of Manchester, will research oxides of ruthenium in the use of acid water electrolysis for large-scale and stable green hydrogen production.
• UNISON – Dr. Dawei Wu, University of Birmingham. The aim is to develop catalytic and additive-enhanced solutions for ammonia-hydrogen co-combustion to optimise efficiency and minimise emissions.
• OptiSen – Professor Gerard Fernando, University of Birmingham. OptiSen will develop optical fibre-based sensors that are low-cost, robust and multi-functional for hydrogen storage and transport applications.
• Professor Jennifer Wen, at the University of Surrey, will investigate and model safety scenarios that could occur with increased global transportation, storage and bunkering of ammonia.
• Professor Stephen Skinner, of the Imperial College of London, will investigate metal-supported solid oxide electrolysers to understand performance, materials degradation and lifespan prediction of cells and devices.
• Trimonia – Professor Terence Liu, University of Northumbria. Project Trimonia will develop a systematic approach to enhance efficiency and reduce energy consumption in catalytic ammonia synthesis from atmospheric nitrogen.