Hydrogen

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ALL Anton Flue Gas Analysers are ready for use on blended hydrogen mains gas says Gas Safe Register.

Want to know more of the details, read on....

Gas Safe Register recently released TB157 which relates to how flue gas analysers are affected by the introduction of up to 20% hydrogen in the mains gas supply in the UK.

The Government have committed for the UK to be carbon neutral by 2050 and burning the traditional natural gas currently used in our mains gas supply produces CO₂ which is a major contributor to the country's overall carbon production. So there's a plan in place to replace today's mains gas with hydrogen (H₂). If H₂ is used as our primary gas source supplied via the existing mains infrastructure then no carbon dioxide is produced (as there's no carbon molecules in H₂) which would be a very significant step towards the overall goal of carbon neutral by 2050.

Hydeploy have produced their own video that explains more about the project:

As you will see in the video, Anton flue gas analysers were used as part of the study to determine the impact (if any) on the appliances and the flue gas readings of the blended H₂ fuel source vs the current mains gas.

Technical Bulletin TB157 summarises the findings of the Hydeploy study in terms of the impact on flue gas analysers. The good news is that as proven by the results taken from an Anton Sprint Pro analyser, blended hydrogen has no impact on the flue gas analysis requirements. So this means that Gas Safe Registered engineers are able to continue using their current flue gas analysers without the need for any adjustments to the analysers themselves, the fuel settings of the of the analyser (i.e. they'd continue to use the "natural gas" setting for blended H₂) or the need for boiler manufacturers to alter the current recommended max permitted CO and CO/CO₂ ratio values for their appliances.

Essentially it's business as usual as far as flue gas analysis measurements are concerned, so an engineer doesn't need to do anything different if there's blended hydrogen in the mains.

One caveat to that is that this only applies to flue gas analysers that are compliant with the British Standard BS EN:50379:2012 (of which all Anton analysers comply so if you're using an Anton Sprint V, Sprint eVo or the new Sprint Pro then you're compliant).

There are now larger scale case studies planned (than the one contained at Keele University) to further prove the safety of blended hydrogen in mains ahead of it going nationwide. All of this is a stepping stone to the ultimate aim of 100% hydrogen as our mains gas supply, with further studies to look at the impact of this in the planning to meet our 2050 commitments.

In summary if you're concerned about your analyser being ready for blended hydrogen in the gas supply, then if you've got an Anton, don't be. Just carry on as you are with traditional mains or "natural gas" and you'll be fine. Things will need to be considered carefully when (and at this stage if) 100% hydrogen replaces natural gas completely, but that won't be for many years yet, so for now keep calm and carry on as the saying goes!