The government has today unveiled a series of funding programmes to help slash emissions from industrial facilities, including support for a series of cutting-edge hydrogen demonstration projects that are set to provide energy for everything from bus fleets to gin distilleries. The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) today announced the latest wave of funding awards a £390m programme designed to tackle industrial emissions, which includes a £40m Hydrogen and Fuel Switching Innovation Fund, a £100m competition to drive greater supplies of low carbon hydrogen, and proposals for a new £250m Clean Steel Fund to help the industry embrace a range of clean technologies. Thirteen hydrogen supply projects have been awarded funding to undertake feasibility studies, while a further seven projects exploring how industrial fuels can be switched to hydrogen have also been awarded funding for feasibility assessments. Should the feasibility studies prove successful the projects could apply for funding through the newly launched £100m Low Carbon Hydrogen Production Fund, which aims to “deploy low carbon hydrogen production capacity to enable greater use of hydrogen as a decarbonisation option across the energy system”. The government said the fund would “encourage future private sector investment in low carbon hydrogen to support scale up and market development that aligns with the UK’s clean growth objectives”. The successful projects feature a number of eye-catching initiatives, including the HySpirits project which has been awarded just under £200,000 to explore how the European Marine Energy Centre could work with local gin producer Orkney Distilling Ltd to convert its distillery from using liquid petroleum gas to hydrogen produced using renewable power.
Business Green 29th Aug 2019 read more »
A craft distillery in Scotland could become the greenest gin and whisky producer in the world as part of the government’s plans to cut industrial climate emissions. The Orkney Distillery has secured a slice of the government’s £390m fund to help develop low-carbon technologies that could reduce carbon emissions from industry. It hopes to use the funds to become the first gin distillery in the world to run on hydrogen made from renewable energy rather than liquid petroleum gas. The Orkney gin project will use renewable electricity to run an electrolyser that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. A spokesman for the distillery, which plans to make whisky in the future too, said it does not believe there is another distillery in the world capable of producing spirits with a smaller carbon footprint. The project could reduce emissions from the plant by about 86 tonnes of carbon every year, equivalent to the emissions from 10 homes or 18 cars.
Guardian 29th Aug 2019 read more »
Energy Voice 30th Aug 2019 read more »
ITM Power (AIM: ITM), the energy storage and clean fuel company, is pleased to announce funding from the UK Government for the Gigastack feasibility study with Ørsted and Element Energy. The project funding is for the feasibility phase leading, if successful, to the opportunity to bid for further funding for the implementation. Gigastack funded by the BEIS Hydrogen Supply Competition, will demonstrate the delivery of bulk, lowcost and zero-carbon hydrogen through gigawatt scale polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis, manufactured in the UK. The project aims to dramatically reduce the cost of electrolytic hydrogen.
ITM Power 29th Aug 2019 read more »