Research and testing

Extensive studies have been carried out over the last five years to provide evidence that hydrogen gas is a suitable replacement for natural gas. This includes research and testing to understand how hydrogen gas behaves and the measures we need to put in place to ensure its safety in homes.

Hy4Heat

The recent UK government backed Hy4Heat study for example, assessed the safe use of hydrogen gas in certain types of domestic properties and buildings. Hy4Heat has been independently reviewed by the Health and Safety Executive, and states that using hydrogen can be made as safe as natural gas for heating and cooking in standard construction detached, semi-detached, and terraced houses where additional safety controls are put in place.

We carried out Hydrogen Consequence Testing in 2018 which informed Hy4Heat. This studied the impact of hydrogen gas on homes and investigated the risks associated with a hydrogen gas leak, and how to safely manage them.

• Read our Hydrogen Consequence Testing report
• Watch video footage from the testing
• The key findings were published in work package 7 of the Hy4Heat study in 2021
• The final progress report for Hy4Heat
   

H21

The H21 project has also gathered extensive evidence for hydrogen gas. It found that gas network assets, including the pipes which carry gas through your street to your home, which didn’t leak with natural gas, also didn’t leak with hydrogen.

Find out more about H21

HyDeploy

HyDeploy pioneered the safe use of blended hydrogen in gas networks to reduce carbon emissions. This project began in 2019 and has already shown that up to 20% hydrogen can be blended safely into existing networks without any disruption to consumers.