The UK is falling behind in the global race to commercialise hydrogen and fuel cell technology, while competitors in the US, Germany, South Korea, and Japan are already generating billions of dollars annually from it. This hub aims to close that gap by coordinating UK research efforts across universities and industry. The core problem is that hydrogen and fuel cells could help solve two major energy challenges: managing the intermittency of renewable power (storing excess wind or solar energy as hydrogen) and decarbonising transport and heating. But the UK lacks the integrated research community needed to move from lab demonstrations to real-world deployment. If successful, the hub will create a network of academics and industrialists who can tackle problems beyond any single group’s expertise. The practical stakes are concrete: Asian manufacturers are already producing around 3,000 fuel cell cars and 50,000 fuel cell heating devices in 2016 alone, with Toyota planning 30,000 fuel cell cars by 2020. UK buses have run for nearly 20,000 hours on hydrogen since 2011, and stationary fuel cells have operated for over 80,000 hours. The research could accelerate the shift to low-carbon transport and heating systems that are both efficient and fuel-flexible, using anything from natural gas to renewable hydrogen.
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The H2FC sector is developing at a rapid pace around the world. In USA, Germany, S.Korea, and Japan, where the government has provided incentives or entered public-private partnerships, the uptake of FC technologies has been far greater than in the UK and is expected to grow, generating billions of dollars every year. In Asia, manufacturers will produce around 3,000 fuel cell cars in 2016 and around 50,000 fuel cell combined heat and power devices. Toyota alone expects to build 30,000 FC cars in 2020. Some hydrogen buses in London's fleet have operated for nearly 20,000 hours since 2011 and the city of Aberdeen runs Europe's largest hydrogen bus fleet, while individual stationary fuel cells have generated power for over 80,000 operating hours. The recently issued H2FC UK roadmap has identified key opportunities for the UK and areas in which H2FC technologies can have benefits. The H2FC SUPERGEN Hub seeks to address a number of key issues facing the hydrogen and fuel cells sector, specifically: (i) to evaluate and demonstrate the role of hydrogen and fuel cell research in the UK energy landscape, and to link this to the wider landscape internationally, (ii) to identify, study and exploit the impact of hydrogen and fuel cells in low carbon energy systems, and (iii) to create a cohort of academics and industrialists who are appraised of each other's work and can confidently network together to solve research problems which are beyond their individual competencies. Such systems will include the use of H2FC technologies to manage intermittency with increased penetration of renewables, supporting the development of secure and affordable energy supplies for the future. Both low carbon transport (cars, buses, boats/ferries) and low carbon heating/power systems employing hydrogen and/or fuel cells have the potential to be important technologies in our future energy system, benefiting from their intrinsic high efficiency and their ability to use a wide range of low to zero carbon fuel stocks.
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