Learnings

Outcomes

The Levenmouth project concludes that the water sector can play a critical role in the development of “hydrogen hubs” to kickstart the hydrogen economy with opportunities for production of hydrogen through electrolysis using WTW potable water, WwTW final effluent or via steam methane reformation using biogas from sludge/biosolids. It is important to understand the availability of water resources; the focus should be on re-use of final effluent to prevent further stress on potable water supplies. For the water sector, there is a real opportunity for oxygen capture and re-use from electrolysis to improve wastewater and water treatment efficiency. Commercialised technology options for use of pure oxygen exist in the market and can in cases be integrated with the existing infrastructure on site. There are also many innovative WwTW Final Effluent treatment technologies that can be a more affordable and efficient alternative to the expensive and energy-intensive reverse osmosis process typically used by electrolyser providers. The location of such cross-sector collaboration in relation to water resources and re-use option is a key driver for success.
Currently, creating hydrogen from both steam methane reformation and water electrolysis would require either an increase in revenues generated or a decrease in costs incurred to become economic. However, the societal benefits of reducing carbon emissions are broad (climate change, health, crop yields) and in light of the current policy momentum that supports the implementation of the hydrogen economy in the UK, it is likely that, in the future, incentives for hydrogen production similar to today’s incentives for biogas production will exist. The need for lower carbon emissions will also lead to new economic and industrial opportunities centred around green innovation.

A surplus in hydrogen production can increase power supply diversity and resilience. There are two main mechanisms to consider:

• Hydrogen can be burned directly for heating, cooking and industrial applications as a replacement for natural gas, thus not creating an additional load on the electricity network.
• Hydrogen can be used for electricity generation, either in fuel cells or in gas turbines.
  Green hydrogen can also be produced and stored during periods when there is a surplus of wind power. During periods of low wind or solar, hydrogen can be withdrawn from storage and used to produce green, local electricity and this smooths out the resulting load curve and postpones grid investments. Similarly, the use of hydrogen alongside self-generation of renewable power within the water sector could eliminate the problems associated with the intermittency of solar and wind power, improving power supply resilience and in turn improving water supply resilience.

Lessons Learnt

• There was a slight misunderstanding on expected information sharing from project partners and therefor strong engagement and agreement on expected inputs from project partners ahead of project initiation is key to successfully delivering a project
• The timescales for delivering the project changed due to a delay in receiving requested data which can be avoided if information sharing timelines is agreed upfront