SERC believes that Wales is ideally placed to take the lead in green hydrogen power. See the Western Mail Business section for the full article. Hydrogen, like electricity, is an energy vector and it can be extracted from water or organic compounds using external energy sources. There are now over 280 hydrogen refuelling sites worldwide and most of the major automobile manufacturers are working on hydrogen fuelled vehicles. Hydrogen is at present mainly produced from fossil fuels, particularly from natural gas by steam methane reforming but must ultimately be produced from renewable resources to minimise CO2 emissions. The Hydrogen Research Unit studies the implementation of hydrogen as a future fuel. An example is a project with European funding in which the team examined the social, economic and technical implications for Wales of moving to a hydrogen economy (www.H2wales.org.uk). A number of other projects are funded through the UK Research Councils, the EU and industry (see Research Projects page). See the research Timeline for the main projects. The team is one of a handful in the world researching the biological production of hydrogen by dark fermentation of food industry co-products, sewage sludge and crops, such as sugar beet and grass. Some of the facilities available can be viewed HERE. A leaflet describing some of the work can be downloaded |
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