The £12m FutureGrid project is looking at how low-carbon fuel can be safely integrated into the network
A section of the pipeline system has been recreated at an air force base in Cumbria to test increasingly concentrated hydrogen blends
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The owner and operator of Britain’s gas transmission network has tested running pure hydrogen through its pipelines in a world first as it attempts to make the case for the lower-carbon fuel as an alternative to natural gas.
The £12 million FutureGrid project is being run by National Gas with funding from Ofgem, the energy regulator, and companies including Northern Gas Networks, which distributes gas across Yorkshire and the northeast, to look at how hydrogen can be safely integrated into the network.
The government has said it wants to reduce the UK’s reliance on natural gas in line with a target to reach net-zero goals. However, pipeline owners hope hydrogen production will be encouraged instead, as a replacement in fuelling heavy industry and eventually home heating, helping to secure the future of their networks.
National Gas operates the transmission lines that carry gas over long distances from the North Sea and import terminals to local distributors that supply homes and businesses, power stations and heavy industries.
