This project will investigate the feasibility of hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) being connected to the current gas network. This project will deliver a report detailing the key benefits under which scenarios that connecting a HRS to a hydrogen network provides advantages against the counterfactuals. These benefits will include key metrics such as the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH), Gross Value Added (GVA), jobs created/retained. These metrics will also include cost to the consumer, should network costs be socialised under the expected Hydrogen Transport & Storage (T&S) business model.
Benefits
There is a lot of ongoing work to identify the most effective route to meet net zero in the UK and this project is one of many projects to evidence the major or minor role hydrogen will have in different scenarios. Repurposing the UK gas networks with hydrogen to support the challenge of the climate change act has the potential to save £millions with minimal gas customer disruption verses alternative decarbonisation solutions
Learnings
Outcomes
Key HyDrive outcomes/observations:
- At high level, the concept appears technically and financially viable, indicating the research has been effective.
- The most likely road vehicle type to transition to hydrogen are HGVs (aswell as buses and vans)). Surveys indicated industry support for hydrogen HGVs.
- Extensive analysis of current demand for petrol and diesel across the WWU region on an hourly, weekly and annual basis was developed from a combination of UK government data, publicly-available data and datasets made available under commercial terms.
- From NESO Future Energy Scenarios 2024, hydrogen requirements for road vehicles was broken down into localised demand across the WWU area. A structure scoring exercise was used in conjunction with mapping to identify potential hydrogen refuelling station locations.
- Required size of hydrogen refuelling stations (to supply motorway HGVs) was identified as 6 tonnes per day, higher than existing stations (0.5 to 1 tonne per day). Design and safety implications of this larger scale are to be reviewed.
- Concept work has been successfully completed to develop the scheme, equipment required and overall layout of a HRS to deliver hydrogen from a repurposed gas grid to road vehicles. Further development of HRS scheme design, leading to engineering, procurement and construction can use the results of HyDrive as a starting point to build on.
- Levelized costs of hydrogen production, storage and transport (LCOH-PST) were generated for 2030, 2035 and 2040. Until the year 2035, the hub-and-spoke scenario is the lowest cost. By 2040, the pipeline grid supply becomes the most financially viable.
- A fleet case study demonstrated that current diesel vans could be substituted for hydrogen if refuelled daily. Using hydrogen as a fuel for Transit vans in WWU’s road fleet is a good way to normalise hydrogen usage by the organisation and is a useful stepping stone to understanding the repurposing of the future gas grid, whilst supporting WWU’s Net Zero ambitions. These learnings would also be applicable to other networks.
Lessons Learnt
HyDrive identified that most road vehicle hydrogen demand is likely to be from HGVs and that large-scale hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) will be required, typically delivering 6 tonnes/day of hydrogen. At high level, the concept appears technically and financially viable, indicating the research has been effective.
Future projects should consider how such a refuelling station could be supplied from the (re-purposed) gas grid in further detail and the requirements for the location and layout of the station to ensure safe and practical operation. Further development of HRS scheme design, leading to engineering, procurement and construction can use the results of HyDrive as a starting point to build on.
The structured scoring approach to identify case study locations, future hydrogen demand and basis for HRS design developed in this project could be adopted for use by other Gas Distribution Network operators.
