Hydrogen is not suitable for home heating, and is likely to remain so, despite the hopes of the UK government and the plumbing industry, a comprehensive review of scientific papers has concluded.
Hydrogen lobbyists are out in force at the Labor party conference this week, sponsoring several events in Liverpool, and will be out in force at the Conservative party conference starting this weekend.
They hope to persuade the UK government to go ahead with a large-scale rollout of hydrogen for home heating, as a replacement for the gas used to heat the vast majority of British homes. Proponents of hydrogen say it would prevent households from having to replace gas boilers with heat pumps, the other main competitor for low-carbon home heating.
But the researchers reviewed 32 studies on hydrogen and concluded that it was unlikely to play a major role in home heating, either as a full replacement for fossil fuel gas heating or as a blend with gas natural
Jan Rosenow, Europe director of the Regulatory Assistance Project, an energy think tank and co-author of the study, said there were too many technical difficulties to overcome to make hydrogen a viable heating fuel and economical with low carbon emissions.
“Using hydrogen for heating may seem attractive at first sight. However, all independent research on this topic comes to the same conclusion: hydrogen heating is far less efficient and more expensive than alternatives such as heat pumps, district heating and solar thermal,” he said.
The study, published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Joule, is the third major blow in the past week to advocates of hydrogen for home heating. Earlier this week, a separate study by analyst firm Cornwall Insight concluded that hydrogen would be almost twice as expensive for home heating as using gas alone. Last week, The Guardian revealed problems with a hydrogen pilot project in Scotland.
Rosenow told the Guardian that hydrogen was not the alternative to heat pumps claimed by lobbyists. “For policymakers, hydrogen for heating seems attractive because it seems easy: just replace fossil gas with hydrogen without impact on households. The reality is that major technical modifications are needed, such as household pipes, and that it will cost people a lot of money to stay warm.”
Michael Liebreich, founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance and president of Liebreich Associates, said: “This is a timely paper that shows that no serious analysis has hydrogen playing more than a marginal role in the future of space heating . We must phase out natural gas in Europe’s heating systems and we must do so without further delay. It’s time to stop the fight: the judges are unanimous and the winners are district heating, heat pumps and “electrification”.
There are many other uses of hydrogen as a fuel, for example in the decarbonisation of heavy industry and shipping. If these industries are to be truly low-carbon, the hydrogen used will have to be generated from renewable energy sources, rather than from fossil fuels, as some hydrogen currently does.
Some in the energy sector have a different view. James Earl, director of gas at the UK Energy Networks Association, which represents the UK’s energy operators, told the Guardian: “No heating system will get us to the UK’s net zero targets as single approach to decarbonisation. heating will not work across the UK’s diverse customer base. We need to look at hydrogen, electrification and other technologies as part of the mix.”
He added: “While hydrogen is expensive today, its cost is falling rapidly and is predicted to fall to a similar cost to natural gas by 2030, if the cost of carbon emissions is fully recognized . Customers need choice and access to a range of technologies including heat pumps, hydrogen boilers, district heating and hybrid heating systems if we are to deliver a sustainable energy system for the future.”