Wales & West Utilities is partnering with hydrogen company, HydroStar, to develop electrolysers that can use unpurified wastewater from processes or rooftops as feedstock to reduce the cost and impact of green hydrogen and widen the potential locations where green hydrogen could be produced.
Using industrial process wastewater could also encourage co-location of production sites, using wastewater to generate hydrogen used on site.
Charlie Newbold, Head of Operations at Hydrostar, said: “Low-carbon hydrogen has the potential to benefit numerous areas like industry, residential heating, transport, and electricity production. However, the associated costs and demand for highly purified water are currently a major hurdle for adopting widespread commercial hydrogen production. Our focus will be tackling these specific challenges, aiming to make low-carbon hydrogen a more feasible low-carbon energy option across these sectors.” The technique will remove rare metals from the design and use a green, non-corrosive electrolyte which can be adjusted to suit specific types of wastewater.
The project will also look at smart injection of the gas into the gas network in a way that helps gas distribution networks to control pressure. Matt Hindle, Head of Net Zero and Sustainability at Wales & West Utilities, said:
“We’re going to need high volumes of green hydrogen to deliver a Net Zero energy system for customers – Wales & West Utilities is proud to be leading this project to help develop a technology which could reduce costs and deliver more positive environmental outcomes.
“We’re exploring how we can make use of existing infrastructure in the process, for example, wind or solar farms and energy networks. As well as assessing its potential to deliver savings and reduce environmental impacts, we’ll be looking at where we can locate this technology to provide flexibility and resilience in the energy system.”