Offering a total of £5m ($6.08m) in funding the BEIS programme aims to support the development of technologies to produce hydrogen generated via BECCS, a process which produces hydrogen from biomass and waste with the ability to capture and store carbon released in the process.

Read more: UK Government launches new £5m scheme to support innovative waste-to-hydrogen technology

22 organisations, including start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises have been awarded funding to develop commercially viable innovative hydrogen BECCS technology solutions across three categories:

Feedstock pre-processing: development of energy and material efficient technologies to optimise biogenic feedstocks for advanced gasification technologies.
Gasification components: development of advanced gasification technology components focused on improving syngas quality and upgrading hydrogen generation.
Novel biohydrogen technologies: development of novel biohydrogen technologies which can be combined with carbon capture.

Awardees include: Biowise Limited, looking to process a waste compost oversize to produce biogenic feedstock (Category 1); Advanced Biofuel Solutions, who’s project hopes to explore novel solutions to deal with contaminants in the fluidised bed oxy-stream gasification process (Category 2); and Untied Utilities Water, seeking to provide a sustainable feed source to produce hydrogen and graphene using the Levidian LOOP Process (Category 3).

UK-based Levidian developed a device which uses plasma technology to separate methane into carbon locked into graphene, and hydrogen, which can either be used immediately or stored for future use.

Read more: Why Levidian’s LOOP technology is a ‘vital’ step forward for the hydrogen industry

A full list of awardees can be found here.

H2 View understands Phase 1 of the programme will be followed by a second Phase which will offer further funding to develop demonstration projects for the most promising Phase 1 developments.

At the time of the programme’s launched in January this year (2022), Greg Hands, Minister of Energy and Climate Change, said, “This innovative technology offers incredible potential for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, crucial to reaching our Net Zero goals.

“This government funding will help support the development of this new technology in the UK, boosting green jobs and investment while slashing carbon emissions.”