Hydrogen fuel gas Detection with novel Raman Analyser (HYDRA)

Approximately 37% of CO2 emissions in the UK come from heating across residential and industrial settings, with 8 out of 10 homes using natural gas as the energy source. Hydrogen has been identified as a potential zero carbon or low carbon energy carrier, which could help the UK reach its goal of becoming a net zero carbon economy. High profile projects such as HyDeploy, have shown the potential of blending hydrogen with the current natural gas supply, thus allowing hydrogen to be used in domestic heating. In this project we propose to examine the feasibility of using a new Raman-based instrument, exploiting the properties of microstructured optical fibres, to measure blends of natural gas and hydrogen, enabling hydrogen to be introduced as a low carbon energy carrier into the UK national gas grid. This technology is being developed by the UK team of IS-Instruments Ltd, Optical Research Centre at the University of Southampton and Jacobs Clean Energy. This game changing technology is expected enable hydrogen to be implemented within the gas network, as well providing direct commercial gains the wider UK economy.