Neil Macdonald, Technical Manager at the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council (HHIC), outlines the potential future of hydrogen industry standards and training. 

The commitment to decarbonising the UK’s homes has been driven to help meet ambitions and legally binding net-zero targets by 2050. As part of this, trials using zero carbon hydrogen-powered appliances, like boilers, are being installed in real-world settings to explore the potential for a hydrogen future. To be able to do this, training and standards have had to be established to support the safe installation of hydrogen. 

The Hydrogen Transition Training Specification (HTTS) has been developed initially to upskill a small group of current Gas Safe-registered engineers, and to be used as hydrogen trials are rolled out across the UK. 

The HTTS will work in tandem with the Interim Standard, a short-term measure designed with flexibility in mind, as a greater understanding of hydrogen grows, leading up to and throughout domestic appliance trials.

Following training that meets the HTTS specification, engineers will be required to successfully complete an independent Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) assessment, which will be formally certificated. In turn, this certification will be added to the engineer’s Gas Safe record, enabling the engineer to carry out work on hydrogen installations, as part of the trials.

Should widespread deployment of hydrogen be approved in future, meaning that there will be a need for scaling up of this training/assessment template, then the ACoP model will be superseded by the normal assessment methodology, as appropriate.

As research begins to yield results, the working standard will be revised to fall in line with the findings. Though the Interim Standard is only a provisional solution, it will form the basis of future standards for both blended and 100% hydrogen systems following the results of trials. 

Definitive, evidence-based information is in places still in development and, as such, the Interim Technical Standard should be viewed as a document designed to continually evolve, as new knowledge comes to light. 

The application of HTTS and the Interim Standard will be pivotal to the success of hydrogen trials like Hy4Heat and the H100 project. Through these projects, the aim is to establish that domestic use of hydrogen is both safe and technically feasible, but to also prove that it is one of the least disruptive means of decarbonising homes. 

In fact, hydrogen offers the opportunity for people to continue to heat, cook, and use hot water in the same way they do today, as ongoing renovation of the natural gas distribution network(s) should mean hydrogen could be used with the UK’s existing infrastructure.

Hydrogen boilers have been produced as part of the Hy4Heat programme with great fanfare, and is a project being driven by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. 

Building on this, the Hy4Heat project has helped to make the H100 Fife Community Demonstration possible, as the appliances developed and used in Hy4Heat will now be installed in the domestic homes in the H100 project, which is developing a world-first hydrogen network in Levenmouth, that will bring 100% hydrogen heating in homes by 2022. 

In the project’s first phase, the network will heat around 300 local homes, which will rise to 1,000 homes in phase two. This will involve using clean gas produced by a dedicated electrolysis plant, powered by a nearby offshore wind turbine. 

Projects like Hy4Heat and H100 provide a valuable insight into what 100% hydrogen networks might look like, as well as underpinning the safety case through real-world experience. In doing so, this allows potential challenges to be identified, and solutions presented, to help inform government decision-making on hydrogen roll-out at a larger scale. 

As before, fully realising a hydrogen future not only requires the right technology and infrastructure, but the qualified professionals to install and service appliances too. Right now, Gas Safe-registered engineers have not been trained to install and maintain hydrogen systems. 

However, establishing HTTS and the Interim Standard are the first steps towards delivering a hydrogen-competent gas engineering workforce of the future, founded upon the common Gas Safe registration we should all look for when seeking competent gas work.

While the HHIC recognises that the learning curve to adopting alternative technology may be steep in some areas, hydrogen appears to offer a good degree of continuity in skills and work practices. 

This has been demonstrated via the research and work being done to map out the major differences between hydrogen and natural gas, with these differences then actively addressed. For example, in terms of tightness testing and purging. 

Nevertheless, it is crucial that the hydrogen trials, and the corresponding training and development needed to upskill Gas Safe-registered engineers, continues to be invested in and prioritised. With the term ‘green recovery’ gaining increasing momentum, centring on the growth of sustainable technology and skills, this will help propel the UK along the journey to reaching net-zero by 2050.