£22.2m for hydrogen in UK’s BEIS’s Industrial Fuel Switching Phase 2 Competition

LONDON (ICIS)–A total of £22.2m is available in additional funding for hydrogen projects in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s Industrial Fuel Switching Phase 2 Competition.

A total of £55m is available in Phase 2, which forms part of the UK government’s £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which “aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies and processes through the 2020s and 2030s.”

Funding for the competition will be split into three lots; Fuel switch and fuel switch enabling technologies for hydrogen, fuel switch and fuel switch enabling technologies for electrification, and fuel switch and fuel switch enabling technologies for biomass, and/or wastes, and/or other net zero compatible fuels.

Examples of projects that may be eligible for funding could be the development and test innovative industrial hydrogen appliances, direct reduction with hydrogen (steel manufacturing), and the development and test hydrogen fuel for industrial sites.

Hydrogen that is produced “via methane reformation with or without CCS will be considered for this competition,” however, applicants are expected to “set out a path to low carbon hydrogen beyond this competition in their application.”

Hydrogen storage will also be considered.

The budget for each demonstration project will be between £1-6m, with the total allocation for funding for Phase 2 at £49.4m.