EMEC secures funding for hydrogen innovation and development projects

European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has won funding, totalling over £500,000 (around $623,000), for four feasibility projects supporting green hydrogen innovation and development.

More specifically, the funding is expected to be used to conduct feasibility studies supporting the development of novel hydrogen production, storage and distribution solutions. To note, EMEC is a part of four project consortia that won the funding.

According to EMEC, the projects in discussion will explore various technology concepts which support offshore and off-grid hydrogen production, seawater electrolysis and an artificial intelligence model to support hydrogen logistics. They include:

• HySKUA (lead partner: EMEC) – A study that will focus on the offshore production of green hydrogen on a floating hydrogen production hub with the potential to be co-located with Scottish offshore wind farms.
• HyBrine (lead partner: sHYp BV Ltd) – Feasibility study for project HyBrine, which aims to achieve low-cost, efficient and sustainable hydrogen production by using seawater as the water source and through technology advancements that avoid the need for desalination systems and enable more durable, reliable electrolysis.
• Feasibility of Explainable AI to support decision-making as applied to hydrogen generation (lead partner: Intelligent Plant Ltd) – Study to develop a decision support system and use explainable artificial intelligence to support operational efficiency and logistics solutions for hydrogen production.
• Off-grid Green Hydrogen Production Demonstration (lead partner: ORE Catapult Development Services Limited) – Study to assess the feasibility of an off-grid green hydrogen production demonstration project.

Matthew Storey, EMEC’s Hydrogen Development Manager, said: “This funding signals a clear willingness from the Scottish Government to integrate green hydrogen into our future energy system.”

“Using our experience in applied hydrogen R&D, sustainable fuels and techno economics, EMEC will be delivering this work in partnership with skilled teams across the project consortia and are delighted to be leading HySKUA.”

“The four projects cover key areas which require further research and development if we are to realise hydrogen’s potential in the energy mix and will help to identify issues in supporting the scale-up of these hydrogen technologies.”

The award comes as part of the Scottish Government’s Hydrogen Innovation Scheme through which 32 projects across Scotland are set to receive funding of £7 million ($8.8m).

Launched in June 2022, the Scheme is a capital funding stream of the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF), designed to support the development and demonstration of renewable hydrogen technologies and products needed to support the Scottish Government’s ambition of 5 GW installed hydrogen production capacity by 2030.