OGTC to invest £1 million in scaling up hydrogen technologies for North Sea decarbonisation

OGTC has extended its latest Call for Ideas, with the organisation set to invest up to £1 million in technologies that will accelerate hydrogen production, transportation, storage and utilisation.

The call follows a host of recent government announcements, including the Scottish Government Hydrogen Policy Statement and the £10 billion of funding in the North Sea Transition Deal.

Submissions to the Call for Ideas must focus on technologies that will decarbonise offshore operations and help the UK become the world’s first net zero basin.

Innovative technology ideas must be at early TRL stage (1-4), require academic R&D to accelerate development and be focused on at least one of the following:

• Optimising the production of blue hydrogen – innovation in low carbon hydrogen production with carbon capture and storage. The main innovation gap involves the separation of hydrogen or carbon to improve yield and carbon capture.
• Bulk hydrogen transportation – enabling effective transportation of renewable energy to utilisation and storage locations. Challenges include effective hydrogen carriers (including liquid organic hydrogen carriers – LOHC) and pipeline repurposing.
• Long-term hydrogen storage – enabling intermittent renewable electricity to become a round-the-clock resource on the way to an eventual carbon-free grid. This may include identification of potential storage sites across the UK and underground storage.
• Hydrogen/hydrogen carrier utilisation – applications include power generation for offshore platforms and/or as a transportation fuel for the marine sector.

Projects are anticipated to run between six to 12 months, with direct funding of up to £100 000 available to support university-, college-, and higher education-delivered R&D for the successful applicants. OGTC will look to match this funding through developer and/or industry contribution.

Dr Vinay Mulgundmath, Chief Technologist at OGTC said: “Our Integrated Energy Vision report, published last year, outlined how a ten-fold increase in hydrogen production is needed by 2050 to create new jobs and achieve maximum economic benefit for the UK.

New solutions to unlock the potential of blue and green hydrogen are a top priority for OGTC, and we have the network in place to offer developers best-in-class technology support, academic expertise and funding. Now is the time to accelerate and scale the technologies which will reduce costs and allow hydrogen to become widely used as part of our future sustainable energy mix.”

The extended deadline for this latest Call for Ideas is 14 June 2021. Further details can be found at: https://www.ogtc.com/research-academia/call-for-ideas/

This Call for Ideas forms part of OGTC’s Net Zero R&D Programme, which helps companies accelerate their net zero technology developments through funded collaboration with Scottish Universities, colleges, and higher education institutes. The programme is backed by Scottish Funding Partners (Scottish Government, The Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Enterprise).

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.