The funding has been awarded through the EDF UK R&D centre to the Bay Hydrogen Hub – Hydrogen4Hanson project, which will look at developing nuclear hydrogen production and investigating technologies to deliver the hydrogen to industrial sites.

The project would underpin the development of a hydrogen hub at EDF’s Heysham nuclear power station in Morecambe, and the use of hydrogen to decarbonise more than 250 sites across the country.

It is seen as a key ‘stepping stone’ towards the decarbonisation of the asphalt and cement industry, developing nuclear hydrogen production and investigating technologies to deliver hydrogen to dispersed industrial sites.

The consortium’s vision is to demonstrate solid oxide electrolysis (SOEC) integrated with nuclear heat and electricity, providing low carbon, low cost hydrogen via novel, next generation composite storage tankers to dispersed asphalt and cement sites in the wider locality of Heysham nuclear power station.

BEIS is providing almost £400,000 through the Industrial Accelerator programme, under the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.

Martin Garfield, Hanson UK Sustainability Director, said the use of hydrogen as a fuel at asphalt sites “has not yet been physically demonstrated anywhere” and it is leading way with new technologies that have the potential to cut industrial carbon emissions.

The renewal of its fleet with hydrogen / electrical hybrid engines is one of Hanson’s key 2030 sustainability commitments.