CASE STUDY 2
SHyNE
Case study: Exploring how nuclear-produced hydrogen can help achieve net zero
- Project reference: NIA_NGN_460
- Project partner: Equilibrion, DNV, WWU
- Project status: In progress
- Overall project value: £192,594
- Innovation theme: Net Zero and the Energy System Transition
INNOVATION THEME:
We teamed up with Wales & West Utilities, DNV and Equilibrion, a leading nuclear specialist consultancy, to undertake new research on how nuclear-enabled hydrogen could help solve the UK’s net zero challenge.
We set out to not only discover the most effective ways of producing hydrogen using nuclear energy, but also to find out how hydrogen produced from nuclear energy fits with current government policies and how it is perceived by the public.
The project consisted of three phases:
Phase 1
A deep dive into what’s already happening in the nuclear and hydrogen sectors, and a detailed look at the research that has already been done around nuclear enabled hydrogen.
Previous projects have identified that hydrogen can be produced from nuclear energy but haven’t gone further.
This phase also brought together key people from the nuclear, gas and hydrogen sectors to help everyone understand the different industries and the best ways to work together moving forward.
Phase 2
The next stage involved looking at how we could best configure nuclear enabled hydrogen production, which involved developing specific models for different production methods.
We worked with the nuclear industry regulator, nuclear reactor vendors and hydrogen producers to get feedback on the various production models and looked at how each one fits with current government policies covering nuclear and hydrogen.
We also explored what production could look like in the different regions we operate in and used existing data to identify where production facilities could be sited and whether the public and businesses living and operating in these areas would be open to nuclear hydrogen production taking place in them.
Phase 3
The final stage of the project involved a detailed report of our findings and a roadmap outlining how nuclear produced hydrogen can be delivered in regions across the UK.
Allan Simpson Innovation Manager
“Exploring how low-carbon nuclear energy can be used to produce hydrogen is a key step in the transition to net zero. This project has started exciting conversations about how the nuclear industry can support hydrogen production in the gas networks.
“It has also helped everyone involved to become informed stakeholders on nuclear-produced hydrogen and our learnings will enable us to take the next steps needed to make nuclear-enabled hydrogen production a reality in the future.”
Key benefits
- Deeper understanding of how the nuclear industry operates and how we can work together to produce nuclear-enabled hydrogen.
- Confirmed that using nuclear-enabled hydrogen can support a transition to hydrogen and ensure enough availability for industrial, commercial and domestic customers.
- Strong recognition of the community benefits nuclear energy can bring, such as long-term skilled jobs.
- Knowledge and data to advocate this approach with government and industry policy makers.
- Demonstrated an innovative way to transform our network in the future.
