Publications

The use of so-called “green” hydrogen for decarbonisation of the energy and propulsion sectors has attracted considerable attention over the last couple of decades. Although advancements are achieved hydrogen still presents some constraints when used directly in power systems such as gas turbines. Therefore another vector such as ammonia can serve as a chemical to transport and distribute green hydrogen whilst its use in gas turbines can li Read More

This is the Committee’s annual report to Parliament assessing progress in reducing UK emissions over the past year. It finds that UK action to curb greenhouse gas emissions is lagging behind what is needed to meet legally-binding emissions targets. Since June 2018 Government has delivered only 1 of 25 critical policies needed to get emissions reductions back on track.

Coal and carbon-containing waste are valuable primary and secondary carbon carriers. In the current dominant linear economy such carbon resources are generally combusted to produce electricity and heat and as a way to resolve a nation’s waste issue. Not only is this a wastage of precious carbon resources which can be chemically utilized as raw materials for production of other value-added goods it is also contrary to international efforts to reduce ca Read More

To limit global warming and mitigate climate change the global economy needs to decarbonize and reduce emissions to net-zero by mid-century. The asymmetries of the global energy system necessitate the deployment of a suite of decarbonization technologies and an all-of-the-above approach to deliver the steep CO2 -emissions reductions necessary. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies that capture CO2 from industrial and power-plant Read More

The cost of delivered H2 using the liquid-distribution pathway will approach $4.3–8.0/kg in the USA and 26–52 RMB/kg in China by around 2030 assuming large-scale adoption. Historically hydrogen as an industrial gas and a chemical feedstock has enjoyed a long and successful history. However it has been slow to take off as an energy carrier for transportation despite its benefits in energy diversity security and environmental stewardship. A key reason for Read More

It is necessary to investigate cylinder crush behavior for improvement of fuel cell vehicle crash safety. However there have been few crushing behaviour investigations of high pressurized cylinders subjected to external force. We conducted a compression test of pressurized cylinders impacted by external force. We also investigated the cylinder strength and crushing behaviour of the cylinder. The following results were obtained.The crush force of hi Read More

The modelling of Rayleigh–Taylor instability during premixed combustion scenarios is presented. Experimental data obtained from experiments undertaken by FM Global using their large-scale vented deflagration chamber was used to develop the modelling approach. Rayleigh–Taylor instability is introduced as an additional time-dependent combustion enhancing mechanism. It is demonstrated that prior to the addition of this mechanism the LES deflagration Read More

This spreadsheet contains data for two future UK scenarios: a "baseline" (i.e. no climate action after 2008 the start of the carbon budget system) and the "central" scenario underpinning the CCC's advice on the fifth carbon budget (the limit to domestic emissions during the period 2028-32).The central scenario is an assessment of the technologies and behaviours that would prepare for the 2050 target cost-effectively while meeting the other criteria in the Read More

In late 2019 the Committee launched a Call for Evidence to inform its advice to the UK Government on the Sixth Carbon Budget due to be published in December 2020. In addition the Committee sought input on Wales’ third carbon budget and interim emissions targets. These summary documents – one for the Sixth Carbon Budget and a second covering Wales’ carbon budget and emissions targets – provide an overview of the 170+ responses receive Read More

This is the second document of a two-part review of the Fourth Carbon Budget which covers 2023 to 2027. The Fourth Carbon Budget agreed by the Government in June 2011 was scheduled to be reviewed in 2014. The first part of the review is available here: The Fourth Carbon Budget Review – part 1: assessment of climate risk and the international response (November 2013).According to the Climate Change Act 2008 carbon budgets can only b Read More

The Scottish Act sets a long-term target to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by at least 80% in 2050 relative to 1990 with an interim target to reduce emissions by 42% in 2020. Secondary legislation passed in October 2010 and October 2011 also set a series of annual emission reduction targets for 2010 to 2022 and 2023 to 2027 respectively. We advised the Scottish Government on annual targets for the period 2028 to 2032 in March 2016 an Read More

Experiments were carried out inside a 25 m3 vented combustion test facility (CVE) with a fixed vent area sealed by a plastic sheet vent. Inside the CVE a 0.64 m3 open vent box called RED-CVE was placed. The vent of the RED-CVE was left open and three different vent area were tested. Two different mixing fans one for each compartment were used to establish homogeneous H2 concentrations. This study examined H2 concentrations in the range between Read More

The article presents a review of the research on green hydrogen from the social sciences identifying its main lines of research its problems and the relevant challenges due to the benefits and impacts that this energy vector has on energy transitions and climate change. The review analyzes a corpus of 78 articles indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) and SCOPUS published between 1997 and 2022. The review identified three research areas related to green Read More

This study aims to present a philosophical and quantitative perspective of a propulsion system for a large-scale hydrogen-fuelled liquid-hydrogen (LH2) tanker ship. Established methods are used to evaluate the design and performance of an LH2-carrier propulsion system for JAMILA a ship designed with four cylindrical LH2 tanks bearing a total capacity of ~280000 m3 along with cargo and using the boil-off as propulsion and power fuel. Additionally the Read More

Hydrogen was doped in austenitic stainless steel (ASS) 316L tensile samples produced by the laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) technique. For this aim an electrochemical method was conducted under a high current density of 100 mA/cm2 for three days to examine its sustainability under extreme hydrogen environments at ambient temperatures. The chemical composition of the starting powders contained a high amount of Ni approximately 12.9 wt. Read More

For the UK to meet their national target of net zero emissions as part of the central Paris Agreement target further emphasis needs to be placed on decarbonizing public transport and moving away from personal transport (conventionally fuelled vehicles (CFVs) and electric vehicles (EVs)). Electric buses (EBs) and hydrogen buses (HBs) have the potential to fulfil requirements if powered from low carbon renewable energy sources.A comparison of c Read More

This is article presents the results of the testing of the addition of a hydrogen-to-nitrogen-rich natural gas of the Lw group and its influence on the operation of selected gas-fired domestic appliances. The tests were performed on appliances used for the preparation of meals and hot water production for hygienic and heating purposes. The characteristics of the tested gas appliances are also presented. The burners and their controllers with which the tested Read More

Electrocatalysts are capable of transforming water into hydrogen oxygen and therefore into energy in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner. However the limitations in the research of high performance catalysts act as an obstructer in the development of using water as green energy. Here we report on a delicate method to prepare novel bimetallic metal organic framework derived electrocatalysts (C–NiCu–BDC–GO–CC) using graphene o Read More

A non-equilibrium two-phase single-component critical (choked) flow model for cryogenic fluids is developed from first principle thermodynamics. Modern equations-of-state (EOS) based upon the Helmholtz free energy concepts are incorporated into the methodology. Extensive validation of the model is provided with the NASA cryogenic data tabulated for hydrogen methane nitrogen and oxygen critical flow experiments performed with four differ Read More

The Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) explored the role of households in a net-zero emissions society to accompany the CCC’s Net Zero report looking at opportunities and challenges for households to reduce emissions from today’s levels and to support the stretch from an 80% emissions reduction to a net-zero greenhouse gas target. As well as describing a net-zero emissions world for households of different types the ESC looked at average househo Read More

This report sets out scenarios for the UK power sector in 2030 as an input to the Committee’s advice on the fifth carbon budget.These scenarios are not intended to set out a prescriptive path. Instead they provide a tool for the Committee to verify that its advice can be achieved with manageable impacts in order to meet the criteria set out in the Climate Change Act including competitiveness affordability and energy security.

As an energy-intensive industry sector the glass industry is strongly affected by the increasingly stringent climate protection targets. As established combustion-based production systems ensure high process stability and glass quality an immediate switch to low greenhouse gas emission processes is difficult. To approach these challenges this work investigates a step-by-step integration of a Power-to-Hydrogen concept into established oxyfuel gl Read More

This is the first document of a two-part review of the Fourth Carbon Budget which covers 2023 to 2027. The Fourth Carbon Budget agreed by the Government in June 2011 was scheduled to be reviewed in 2014. The second part of the review is available here: The Fourth Carbon Budget Review – part 2: the cost effective path to the 2050 target (December 2013).According to the Climate Change Act 2008 carbon budgets can only be altered if there Read More

The following report accompanies the Committee on Climate Change’s 2017 report on energy prices and bills. It was written by Ricardo Energy and Environment.The report provides an analysis of the opportunities to UK businesses to supply global markets with low carbon materials and goods and services. The report considers: the position of the current UK low carbon economy the size of the market opportunity for UK businesses in 2030 an Read More

The development of hydrogen as energy carrier is promoted by the increasing in energy demand depletion of fossil resources and the global warming. However this issue relies primarily on the safety aspect which requires the knowledge in the case of gas release of the quantities such as the flammable cloud size release path and the location of the lower flammability limit of the mixture. The integral models for predicting the atmospheric dispersi Read More

At the request of the government of Japan under its G20 presidency the International Energy Agency produced this landmark report to analyse the current state of play for hydrogen and to offer guidance on its future development.The report finds that clean hydrogen is currently enjoying unprecedented political and business momentum with the number of policies and projects around the world expanding rapidly. It concludes that now is the time to scale u Read More

An essential problem for the operation of high pressure water electrolyzers and fuel cells is the permissible contamination of hydrogen and oxygen. This contamination can create malfunction and in the worst case explosions in the apparatus and gas cylinders. In order to avoid dangerous conditions the exact knowledge of the explosion characteristics of hydrogen/air and hydrogen/oxygen mixtures is necessary. The common databases e.g. the CHEMSA Read More

The Gas Goes Green Programme developed by the gas networks and the Energy Networks Association (ENA) describes a viable pathway to the injection of hydrogen and biomethane as a practical step towards the decarbonisation of the UK gas sector and will play a key role in the UK’s Net Zero energy strategy. It therefore follows that technical and management teams in the supply chain and related industries will need a sound understanding of the issues Read More

This is the Committee’s 2020 report to Parliament assessing progress in reducing UK emissions over the past year. This year the report includes new advice to the UK Government on securing a green and resilient recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. The Committee’s new analysis expands on its May 2020 advice to the UK Prime Minister in which it set out the principles for building a resilient recovery. In its new report the Committee has assessed a w Read More

Energy–structure–function (ESF) maps can aid the targeted discovery of porous molecular crystals by predicting the stable crystalline arrangements along with their functions of interest. Here we compute ESF maps for a series of rigid molecules that comprise either a triptycene or a spiro-biphenyl core functionalized with six different hydrogen-bonding moieties. We show that the positioning of the hydrogen-bonding sites as well as their number ha Read More

Burning hydrogen emits thermal radiation in UV NIR and IR spectral range. Especially in the case of large cloud explosion the risk of heat radiation is commonly underestimated due to the non-visible flame of hydrogen-air combustion. In the case of a real explosion accident organic substances or inert dust might be entrained from outer sources to produce soot or heated solids to substantially increase the heat release by continuum radiation. To inves Read More

Thermally sprayed aluminium (TSA) coatings provide protection to offshore steel structures without the use of external cathodic protection (CP) systems. These coatings provide sacrificial protection in the same way as a galvanic anode and thus hydrogen embrittlement (HE) becomes a major concern with the use of high strength steels. The effect of TSA on the HE of steel seems to remain largely unknown. Further the location of hydrogen in TSA-coated Read More

The onset and further development of the hydrogen economy are known to be constrained by safety barriers as well as by the level of public acceptance of new applications. Educational and training programmes in hydrogen safety which are currently absent in Europe are considered to be a key instrument in lifting these limitations and to ensure the safe introduction of hydrogen as an energy carrier. Therefore the European Network of Excellence ‘Safe Read More

Natural gas plays a central role in the UK energy system today but it is also a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The UK committed in 2008 to reduce GHG emissions by at least 80% compared to 1990 levels by 2050. In June 2019 a more ambitious target was adopted into law and the UK became the first major economy to commit to “net-zero” emissions by 2050. In this context the Energy Networks Association (ENA) commissioned Read More

Developing renewable energy-driven water splitting for sustainable hydrogen production plays a key role in achieving the carbon neutrality goal. Nevertheless the efficiency of traditional pure water electrolysis is severely hampered by the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) due to its sluggish kinetics. In this context replacing OER with thermodynamically more favorable oxidation reactions to produce hydrogen via hybrid water electrolysis becomes an Read More

Ni-based catalysts are attractive alternatives to noble metal electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein we present a dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3) insight into HER activity on the (111) (110) (001) and (100) surfaces of metallic nickel nitride (Ni3N). A combination of water and hydrogen adsorption was used to model the electrode interactions within the water splitting cell. Surface energies were Read More

In this paper CFD techniques were applied to the simulations of hydrogen release from a 400-bar tank to ambient through a Pressure Relieve Device (PRD) 6 mm (¼”) opening. The numerical simulations using the TOPAZ software developed by Sandia National Laboratory addressed the changes of pressure density and flow rate variations at the leak orifice during release while the PHOENICS software package predicted extents of various hydrogen concentrati Read More

Direct internal reforming enables optimal heat integration and reduced complexity in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems but thermal stresses induced by the increased temperature gradients may inflict damage to the stack. Therefore the development of adequate control strategies requires models that can accurately predict the temperature profiles in the stack. A 1D dynamic modelling platform is developed in this study and used to simulate SOFCs i Read More

The study is focused on the technology and manipulation of production strategies for the cultivation of biomass from four strains of microalgae. Species of microalgae studied are: Chlorella vulgaris Dunaliella Scenedesmus quadricauda and Synechococcus spp. The effects of the rate and amount of CO2 removal from the atmosphere and sequestration with dissolved oxygen on lipid production from accumulated biomass were studied. Also the rate of seque Read More

Anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis is considered a promising solution to future cost reduction of electrochemically produced hydrogen. We present an AEM water electrolyzer with CuCoOx as the anode catalyst and Aemion as membrane and electrode binder. Full cell experiments in pure water and 0.1 M KOH revealed that the optimum binder content depended on the type of electrolyte employed. Online dissolution measurements sugge Read More

A potentially viable solution to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions by vehicles in the transportation sector is the deployment of hydrogen as alternative fuel. A limitation to the diffusion of the hydrogen‐fuelled vehicles option is the intricate refuelling stations that vehicles will require. This study examines the practical use of hydrogen fuel within the internal combustion engine (ICE)‐powered long‐haul heavy‐duty trucking vehicles. Specifically it appraises Read More

This concept study extends the power-to-gas approach to small combined heat and power devices in buildings that alternately operate fuel cells and electrolysis. While the heat is used to replace existing fossil heaters on-site the power is either fed into the grid or consumed via heatcoupled electrolysis to balance the grid power at the nearest grid node. In detail the power demand of Germany is simulated as a snapshot for 2030 with 100% renewabl Read More

Hydrogen is widely regarded as a key element of prospective energy solutions for alleviating environmental emission problems. However hydrogen is classified as a high-risk gas because of its wide explosive range high overpressure low ignition energy and fast flame propagation speed compared with those of hydrocarbon-based gases. In addition deflagration can develop into detonation in ventilation or explosion guide tunnels if explosion overpressur Read More

Based on technical environmental economic and social facts and recent findings the feasibility of the transition from our current fossil age to the new green age is analyzed in detail at both global and local level. To avert the threats of health problems environmental pollution and climate change to our quality and standard of life a twofold radical paradigm shift is outlined: Green Energy Revolution means the complete change from fossil-based to green prim Read More

The manuscript firstly describes the data collection and validation process for the European Hydrogen Incidents and Accidents Database (HIAD 2.0) a public repository tool collecting systematic data on hydrogen-related incidents and near-misses. This is followed by an overview of HIAD 2.0 which currently contains 706 events. Subsequently the approaches and procedures followed by the authors to derive lessons learned and formulate recommendations fro Read More

In this paper a vertical turbulent round jet of helium was studied numerically using the PHOENICS software package. The flow was assumed to be steady incompressible and turbulent. The jet discharge Froude number was 14000 and the turbulent Schmidt number was 0.7. The incompressible Reynolds average Navier-Stokes equations and helium transport equation expressed in 2-D axisymmetric domain were applied to model the underlying helium relea Read More

For this show the team are taking a dive into the world of hydrogen trains and who better to speak to this space than Mike Muldoon Head of Business Development and Marketing for Alstom UK&I. Alstom have been the pioneers of hydrogen powered rail and in addition to two operating trains in Germany have secured over Eur500 million of orders for hydrogen trains. On the show we talk to Mike about why Alstom see hydrogen as a key part of the Read More

Gas systems can provide considerable flexibility in integrated energy systems to accommodate hydrogen produced from Power-to-Hydrogen units using excess volatile renewable energy generation. To use the flexibility in integrated energy systems while ensuring a secure and reliable system operation gas system operators need to accurately and easily analyze the effects of varying hydrogen levels on the dynamic gas behavior and vice versa. Existin Read More

Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is one of the main limitations in the use of advanced high-strength steels in the automotive industry. To have a better understanding of the interaction between hydrogen (H) and a complex phase steel an in-situ method with plasma charging was applied in order to provide continuous H supply during mechanical testing in order to avoid H outgassing. For such fast-H diffusion materials only direct observation during in- Read More

Experimental data obtained for hydrogen mixtures in a room-size enclosure are presented and compared with data for propane and methane mixtures. This set of data was also used to develop a three-dimensional gas dynamic model for the simulation of gaseous combustion in vented enclosures. The experiments were performed in a 64 m3 chamber with dimensions of 4.6 × 4.6 × 3.0 m and a vent opening on one side and vent areas of either 2 Read More