The decision to restrict the potential blend to 20% is based on:-
- Earlier studies (e.g. HSE Research Report RR1047, 2015), indicate that the addition of up to 20% hydrogen by volume is unlikely to present significant changes to any risks already associated with natural gas delivery.
- 20% is the level at which it is expected that gas customers supply and usage will not be affected by the change in gas composition.
- Gas appliances manufactured after 1996 have been designed to operate with a hydrogen mix up to 23%.
HyDeploy aims to provide practical evidence about the level of hydrogen that can be accommodated with requiring significant changes to appliances or the network.
Beyond HyDeploy, other projects are looking at how higher concentrations of hydrogen could work on different parts of the national gas network in the future (Northern Gas Networks, H21), as well as with gas appliances (BEIS innovation funding).