Birmingham to support new £14.1m global initiative to transform Net Zero hydrogen production

The Global Hydrogen Production Technologies Center (HyPT) is a £14.1 million five-year project which seeks to accelerate Net Zero hydrogen technologies to make it available at low cost – approximately one dollar per kg of hydrogen.

UK Research and Innovation has distributed £6.2 million of funding to UK HyPT partners through their Building a Green Future fund and International Science Partnerships Fund.

Dame Ottoline Leyser, UKRI CEO, said: “UKRI’s Building a Green Future Programme aims to harness the power of research and innovation to tackle hard-to-decarbonise sectors in our economy. We are excited to be partnering with our sister organisations in the US, Canada and Australia to accelerate progress toward this crucial goal.

“Our combined investment in Global Centres enables exciting researcher and innovation-led international and interdisciplinary collaboration to drive the energy transition. I look forward to seeing the creative solutions developed through these global collaborations.”

The international partnership of six countries – US, Australia, Canada, UK, Egypt, and Germany is led by Arizona State University, the University of Adelaide, the University of Toronto and Cranfield University.

Other founding members of the Centre include:

• US: University of Michigan, Stanford University, Navajo Technical University
• Australia: Flinders University, Curtin University
• Canada: University of Quebec in Montreal, University of Calgary, McGill University, University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, University of British Columbia
• UK: Imperial College London, Newcastle University, University of Cambridge, University of Birmingham

Together the consortium will explore the creation of a responsible hydrogen ecosystem making it both low-cost with Net Zero emissions and responsive to the social and environmental impacts of wholescale system change.

Speaking about the HyPT project, Professor Robert Steinberger-Wilckens, Director of the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research said:

“We are looking forward to this unique opportunity of working with colleagues from across the globe in producing hydrogen more efficiently and at lower cost. With many partners in the consortium, we have been in touch in the past and we are very happy to engage with them again. Our common goal is to supply green hydrogen to power the energy transition to reach Net Zero, the sooner, the better.”

To support the ambitions of the HyPT Center, researchers from the University of Birmingham will deliver novel materials and manufacturing processes for high temperature electrolysis, turning renewable electricity and water into hydrogen at unprecedented efficiencies above 95%.

Crucial role of Net Zero hydrogen in meeting Paris climate targets

Large-scale hydrogen production with Net Zero emissions of greenhouse gases is essential to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate targets and limit global warming to 2˚C. Net Zero hydrogen enables the decarbonisation of many energy-intensive industries such as ammonia, steel, cement, aluminium, transportation, and energy storage. But Net Zero hydrogen is currently several times more expensive than hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, which hinders its widespread adoption.

HyPT seeks to develop three major Net Zero hydrogen production technologies:

1. Water electrolysis where electricity is used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen.
2. Methane pyrolysis where a natural gas is heated to a high temperature and splits into hydrogen and solid carbon.
3. Photocatalytic solar water splitting where sunlight is used help water break apart into oxygen and hydrogen.
4. The Center will develop breakthroughs in these technologies while assessing their impacts on local communities and ecosystems so that the Net Zero hydrogen economy develops in an ethical manner.

For more information on HyPT please visit the HyPT website.