HyDUS Project Awarded £7.7m From UK Net Zero Innovation Portfolio

The consortium involving EDF (UK) R&D, Urenco (ENS Corporate Members), the University of Bristol, and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has been awarded £7.73 million to develop a hydrogen storage demonstrator utilising depleted uranium at UKAEA’s Culham Science Centre in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

The funds are allocated by the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), in the framework of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of low-carbon technologies and systems.

The Hydrogen in Depleted Uranium Storage (HyDUS) project will demonstrate the chemical storage of hydrogen at ambient conditions by chemically bonding the hydrogen to depleted uranium (uranium-238) to form heavy-metal hydride compounds.

In the storage demonstrator, hydrogen would be so absorbed on a depleted uranium ‘bed’, which could then release the hydrogen when needed for use.

According to Urenco, the HyDUS project will deliver a modular demonstrator system within the next 24 months with an ambition to initially install the technology on nuclear sites, thereby enhancing the profitability of nuclear power plants.

Later, however, it is hoped that the technology could be more widespread, and used to support transport and heavy industries such as aluminium and steel smelting.