While the scale and ambition for the use of hydrogen in the long term eclipses the scale of infrastructure available presently, this deal provides a stable, high-quality supply to allow innovation to go ahead with security and confidence.
Daily supply
This long-term hydrogen supply agreement builds on the MoU signed between the parties in 2023 and will ensure daily hydrogen supply to the St. Helens-based research centre from July.
It will enable the uptake of hydrogen to be quicker, more effective, and safer – all at a lower cost.
Ryze, which supplies clean fuels as well as the infrastructure needed to power industry, transport, and other sectors, said this was a vital step in accelerating the energy transition.
“This is a game-changing supply to an organisation that is working tirelessly to reduce emissions and drive innovation across the glass and foundation industries, and we’re delighted to be taking our relationship with Glass Futures to the next level,” said Ryze Head of Business Development, Alex Webster.
Glass Futures is a disruptive not-for-profit research-and-technology organisation that runs a £54m facility designed to speed up the decarbonisation of industrial processes. It has already powered a trial in Sheffield which showed that using hydrogen to power steelmaking could reduce carbon emissions by more than 40%.
Hydrogen trials
Delivery infrastructure is being developed on-site with Ryze at present, and hydrogen trials will commence in the summer 2024.
Glass Futures’ General Manager, Aston Fuller said testing was only possible with a high-quality, resilient supply of hydrogen.
“We have a blossoming hydrogen infrastructure capability which is enabling research in a meaningful, strategic way,” he explained.
“There is a real intrigue about hydrogen’s use in industrial processes, whether that’s HAR streams or the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, and while we’ve been involved in various pilots and test programmes, we want to understand how hydrogen works over an extended period of time and its impact on industrial processes.
“The facility we have built in St Helens is globally unique and pioneering and this deal with Ryze is saying to people ‘come and do your hydrogen research in the UK’.”
Ryze Business Development Manager Jake Harding added: “The work Ryze is doing to support fossil fuel displacement is fundamental to the UK’s decarbonisation strategy and we’re excited about this period of hydrogen innovation with the Glass Futures’ membership.”
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