Costain hydrogen project delivers benefits
1 November 2022
Lancashire County Council’s delivery partner, Costain, and hydrogen industry start-up, Hydrologiq, have successfully trialled the use of a hydrogen-powered fuel cell generator at the Preston Western Distributor Road project’s M55 compound.
The trial demonstrated carbon savings from on-site operations of between 70 per cent and close to 100 per cent, when powered by grey hydrogen (obtained from natural gas) and green hydrogen (from renewable sources) respectively.
The project also showed that hydrogen could power an entire site compound comprising offices, a canteen, drying room, toilets and two battery electric vehicle (BEV) charging stations.
Moving from diesel to green hydrogen on a similar compound could save up to 11 tonnes CO2e per month, the results showed.
Using the EODev GEH2 fuel-cell and battery integrated generator also delivered benefits for the local community, including extremely quiet operations and the emission of water as sole by-product from its use.
Hydrologiq funded the trial through an innovation grant from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which aims to support the deployment of hydrogen generators on sites throughout the UK.
Benjamin Lindley, director at Hydrologiq, said: “On-site power provided via hydrogen fuel-cell technology has the ability to make construction sites quieter, cleaner, and healthier places to work. The generator itself ran so quietly that a diligent security guard raised a false alarm that the power had cut off when he didn’t hear the expected rumble from the diesel unit.”
“We are grateful to everyone at Costain who worked with us to make this trailblazing deployment a success. Thanks also to our grant collaborators Blue Lightning Solutions, and our suppliers: generator manufacturers EODev, and fuel providers BOC.”
Tara McCracken, project environment manager at Costain, said: “Costain has set an ambitious target to be carbon neutral by 2035 at the very latest. Our aim is to be a clean growth leader, enabling the uptake of low carbon solutions such as hydrogen and supporting our supply chain to achieve net zero carbon.
“By 2023, every solution delivered by Costain for our clients will propose low carbon options.”
