Hanson secures funding to investigate hydrogen as a fuel at asphalt sites
Hanson UK, a leading supplier of heavy building materials to the construction industry, has secured funding to investigate the feasibility of using low carbon hydrogen as an alternative source of heat at its asphalt plants. BEIS is providing almost £400,000 through the Industrial Hydrogen Accelerator programme, under the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. The funding has been awarded through the EDF UK R&D centre to the Bay Hydrogen Hub – Hydrogen4Hanson project, which will look at developing nuclear hydrogen production and investigating technologies to deliver the hydrogen to industrial sites.
Hanson is part of the HeidelbergCement Group, one of the largest building materials manufacturers in the world, the global market leader in aggregates which also has leading positions in cement, concrete and other downstream activities. The Group employs around 60,000 people at 3,000 production sites in around 60 countries on five continents.
The Hydrogen4Hanson project would underpin the development of a hydrogen hub at EDF’s Heysham nuclear power station in Morecambe, Lancashire, and the use of hydrogen to decarbonise multiple Hanson sites in the UK.
Sustainability director Marian Garfield (pictured) said: “The use of hydrogen as a fuel at asphalt sites has not yet been physically demonstrated anywhere in the world, so we are delighted to once again be leading the way with new technologies that have the potential to significantly cut carbon emissions across our industry. Our involvement in this project is another example of our commitment to meeting our 2050 net zero carbon ambitions.”
It is hoped that the project will demonstrate a key step forward towards the decarbonisation of both the asphalt and cement industries and has the potential to be upscaled to more than 250 sites in the UK alone.
