Beyond the tangible connection of the M5 motorway, both regions share a commitment to develop the hydrogen value chain.
The Midlands positions itself as the manufacturing heartland of the UK, with expertise and capacity to make and apply low carbon hydrogen technologies, as well as strong R&D and broad university and education sector.
Recently 170 industry, local government and university stakeholders gathered at Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK’s headquarters at Burnaston, Derbyshire for the HyDEX Regional Policy and Innovation Summit (pictured).
There are 20 low carbon hydrogen production projects already in development in the Midlands. Plus, the East Coast Hydrogen Project has signed Memorandums of Understanding with 26 industrial hydrogen users in the East Midlands, confirming their desire to transition to hydrogen fuel across their cumulatively 90 Midlands sites.
Other regional advances to celebrate include the 124 hydrogen buses coming to Birmingham, JCB’s successful development of a hydrogen internal combustion engine in the region, a world-first hydrogen-powered lime kiln trial by Tarmac at their Tunstead, Derbyshire site, and Toyota’s work to develop a prototype hydrogen-fuel-cell powered version of its Hilux pick-up truck at its Burnaston factory.
The Midlands Engine Hydrogen Technologies Strategy – launched in December 2021 – was co-created by partners across the region to crystallise and champion the pivotal role the Midlands can play in low carbon hydrogen, to achieve government ambitions to expand the UK hydrogen economy and drive sustainable growth.
The strategy is part of the pan-regional partnership’s wider Ten Point Plan for Green Growth which is galvanising action for a cleaner, greener, better Midlands.
Implementing the actions set out in the strategy could deliver 167,000 new or safeguarded jobs, £10bn GVA to the Midlands and UK economy and 29% CO2 reduction against current levels in the decade.
The first hydrogen-fuelled buses took to the streets of the West Midlands last year, following the approval of a £30m Department for Transport grant.
It follows a successful bid to the Zero-emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) fund to promote cleaner and greener bus transport and will cover the cost of a refuelling facility as well as the new vehicles.
Following the UK government earmarking £113m to support the development of hydrogen and all-electric flight technologies – and launching a consultation seeking views on how to achieve zero-emission airport operations in England by 2040 – these two key regions are busy targeting opportunities.
R&D and funding
Coventry University believes its hydrogen fuel-cell development facility, now operational, can support the UK’s bid to become an international leader in sustainable mobility.
The Centre for Advanced Low Carbon Propulsion Systems (C-ALPS) saw the construction of a dedicated 100sqm hydrogen fuel-cell lab, alongside an upgrade of its powertrain test cells, which assess hydrogen power systems for use in environmentally-friendly vehicles.
The new facilities are housed inside the £50m research centre that opened at the university’s Technology Park in 2018 to accelerate the transport sector’s progression to carbon-zero mobility.
In collaboration with colleagues at universities and institutions in the UK, China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, researchers in the Edwards/ Xiao group at Oxford’s Department of Chemistry developed a method of converting plastic waste into hydrogen gas which can be used as a clean fuel, and high-value solid carbon. This was achieved with a new type of catalysis developed by the group which uses microwaves to activate catalyst particles to effectively ‘strip’ hydrogen from polymers.
This rapid one-step process for converting plastic to hydrogen and solid carbon significantly simplifies the usual processes of dealing with plastic waste and demonstrates that over 97% of hydrogen in plastic can be extracted in a very short time, in a low-cost method with no CO2 burden (click here).
The Hydrogen Hub, launched in Swindon and Wiltshire in January 2016, has since driven over £1.5m of external investment in hydrogen and fuel cell projects in the region with over 50 different organisations participating in working groups and projects.
In other moves, HyDEX, a three-year government funded programme led by the Energy Research Accelerator, aims to support and foster the creation of a new hydrogen industrial economy in the Midlands.
Cadent Gas Limited in the West Midlands was awarded £296,174 for feasibility work last summer, as part of the HySupply 2 competition, focusing on how to purify hydrogen that has been through the gas grid to make it suitable for use in lorries.
Partnerships develop in South West
Hydrogen refuelling company Element 2 announced at the turn of the year that it has established a partnership with developer Tower Group to bring hydrogen refuelling for road transport to the South Weset region.
Under the partnership, Element 2 will supply its mobile refuelling solutions in Devon and Cornwall, counties where Tower Group is planning to establish three hydrogen hubs as part of plans to form a new regional hydrogen ecosystem.
In another key partnership, a group of nine leading organisations covering aerospace, shipping, hi-tech engineering and public utilities have come together to launch Hydrogen South West (HSW), which will create an infrastructure ecosystem that will bring the benefits of hydrogen to the region.
This infrastructure ecosystem of key industries aims to decarbonise transport, commerce and power, while driving sustainable growth, upskilling the region and delivering new job opportunities.
Focusing on key sectors such as shipping, aviation and housing as well as industry, the consortium comprises leading companies GKN Aerospace, easyJet, Airbus and Hynamics (EDF); consultants and engineers Costain and Wood; and regional leaders Bristol Port, Bristol Airport, and Wales and West Utilities.
The GKN-led, Bristol project is developing a liquid hydrogen-propulsion system for aircraft that would eliminate harmful CO2 emissions and leave water as the only by-product of flight. If successful, the aerospace firm said it could help secure up to 3,120 high-value engineering and manufacturing jobs by 2032-2033 in Bristol, Coventry and Loughborough.
All companies have a shared hydrogen mission; to ensure the area can “Make It”, “Move It” and “Use It”.
The collaboration creates links between supply and demand centres in the region, and enables cross-sector partnerships that will drive the development of hydrogen infrastructure and technology.
How Bristol Airport can become an Airport Hydrogen Hub, for example, will be determined by a new partnership of Airbus, easyJet, and EDF’s Hynamics. This UK project now joins a network of ‘ZEROe’ agreements that Airbus has reached with various airports in Europe and Asia Pacific to explore hydrogen technology.
Chris Steel, Hydrogen Lead at Business West, said while there is a huge amount of positive activity happening in the fast growing hydrogen sector, there is a growing risk that we won’t have a ‘hydrogen-ready’ workforce in place to meet the UK’s ambitions to deliver 20-35 per cent of energy demand through hydrogen.
To mitigate this risk, organisations like HSW is committed to accelerating the region’s hydrogen economy.
A National Hydrogen Skills Alliance is also being established. A collaboration between HVMC & Cogent Skills, the Alliance will draw on experts and expertise from across industry, academia and research and technology organisations.
Carlton Power has chosen the build its third hydrogen hub in the UK on land within the Langage Energy Park. The 10MW hydrogen hub project will provide local communities with convenient access to hydrogen fuel.
The first phase has secured planning consent from South Hams District Council and is supported by the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership and Regen, the region’s low-carbon energy organisation.
‘Significant opportunities’ for Cornwall
A Regen assessment report on Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly found there are ‘significant opportunities’ for hydrogen activity in the region by 2030.
Some specific sectors that showed strong potential, include the maritime and marine industries, which have more than doubled over the last 14 years and are responsible for 12,500 jobs, and the county’s mining and aggregate industries, where heavy duty, specialist vehicles are difficult to decarbonise and challenging to electrify.
There are also potentially significant hydrogen research and development opportunities for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in the aviation, maritime, and agriculture sectors, the report notes.