Overcoming Challenges for the UK’s Clean Hydrogen Economy: Insights from NPL Study
Key Ideas
- The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) identifies key challenges hindering the growth of the UK's clean hydrogen economy across production, storage, distribution, and end use.
- Efforts are focused on reducing the cost of 'green' hydrogen production, enhancing storage methods, optimizing distribution, and addressing end-use industry and power needs.
- Collaboration between government, industry, academia, and NPL is crucial to overcome challenges, establish technical standards, and drive the adoption of hydrogen technologies for a sustainable future.
A new study from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK points out the essential challenges that need to be addressed to advance the country's clean hydrogen economy. The study emphasizes the importance of overcoming obstacles in production, storage, distribution, and end-use of hydrogen for the sector to thrive. Challenges such as reducing production costs, ensuring quality control, optimizing storage methods, and enhancing distribution infrastructure are highlighted. The need for advanced technologies in compression, purification, and leakage prevention is also emphasized.
The report underscores the significance of establishing regulatory frameworks and technical standards across the hydrogen value chain to facilitate the integration of hydrogen technologies in various industries. NPL scientist Ali Al-Sikab stresses the role of metrology in standardizing hydrogen technologies and promoting their successful operation for broader commercial acceptance.
The study indicates that industries and power sectors are expected to drive the initial adoption of hydrogen, with a subsequent focus on transport, particularly heavy transport. The collaboration between NPL, government, industry, and academia is viewed as pivotal in addressing the identified challenges and propelling the development and deployment of hydrogen technologies in the UK.