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NETWORK / 27 / APRIL 2018 INNOVATION H yDeploy aims to establish the potential for blending hydrogen, up to 20 per cent, into the normal gas supply to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. It is working towards a one- year live trial on part of Keele University's private gas network, starting in 2019. It will determine the level of hydrogen which could be used by gas customers safely, and with no changes to their behaviour or existing domestic appliances. The project was awarded £6.7 million worth of funding through Ofgem's Network Inno - vation Competition in November 2016, something which Parkin and Horsley believe has helped it reach trial stage. "We first came up with the idea around two years ago," comments Parkin. "We wanted to demonstrate some of the techniques around generating hydrogen and how we might use it in our network. It took us a year to get through the NIC pro - cess. We were awarded funding and we've progressed towards the project launch." In addition to the funding awarded by Ofgem, Cadent and NGN have also made their own contributions towards the project. "The NIC and the NIA have created a great stimulus," adds Horlsey. "There's always going Blending hydrogen into the gas network The HyDeploy project will explore the potential of injecting zero-carbon hydrogen into the natural gas network and is backed by funding from Ofgem's Network Innovation Competition (NIC). Alec Peachey speaks to David Parkin (director of safety and network strategy at Cadent) and Mark Horsley (CEO of Northern Gas Networks) to find out more. to be arguments over whether it should be customers support- ing this or ourselves, but I think there's a nice blend between the two. "I think the key thing for my - self and David is the collabora- tion that this all brings together. It's not just the gas networks, but also the supply chain and Keele University. It leads into potentially what could be 100% hydrogen. Without the NIC funding that stimulus probably wouldn't have occurred in the speed that it has." Parkin agrees: "I think when you consider the scale of what we're trying to achieve here, which is fundamen - tally change the shape of the drogen is going to take a period of time, in terms of getting pub - lic acceptance of the concept of hydrogen in the energy mix. "A strong part of this project is around demonstration of the technical aspects, but also cus - tomer acceptance and putting customer acceptability at the heart of it." The safety side The Health & Safety Laboratory is overseeing all safety aspects of HyDeploy, providing expert, impartial advice to the project. As part of Phase 1 of HyDe- ploy, gas safety checks are being carried out in the homes and buildings in the trial area. Laboratory tests have also energy landscape across the UK by introducing a hydrogen economy, it does need a wider stimulus. It isn't something that an individual company could set out and do on their own. It does needs support from the regula - tors and government as well as collaboration across the GDNs. When you bring all that together you do set that trajectory for a fundamental shi™ in the energy landscape." So what are the main benefits of a hydrogen network? "What we're looking to do is reduce the carbon intensity of heating," comments Parkin. "Ultimately, we see a strong role for 100 per cent hydrogen but converting to 100 per cent hy - An engineer attaching a blended gas bottle (blended hydrogen and natural gas) to a customer's supply so they can test run it on gas appliances.