On February 17th – 18th 2025, the NHyRA Consortium gathered in Teddington, UK, hosted by the Project Partner National Physical Laboratory (NPL), for the second in-person consortium meeting. Back in February 2024, the Project held its kick-off meeting, and first in-person meeting, at the SNAM premises in Milan.
A year after its launch, the NHyRA project has successfully implemented its multi-year roadmap. In this respect, the multi-disciplinary consortium of the project, comprising members from all over Europe, conveyed to discuss the progress of all the work packages and evaluate research results. The two-day event was a rewarding experience allowing partners to engage in meaningful exchanges.
The gathering also allowed the consortium experts to identify and address potential bottlenecks which may hinder the project from advancing in line with the roadmap objectives. Furthermore, the event provided an opportunity for the consortium partners to plan the next stages of the project, focusing on improving the capability to quantify and deliver validated methodologies for measuring hydrogen emissions.
Photo 1. [The NHyRA Consortium partners]
In addition to the afore mentioned discussions, the consortium experts also considered the planning of field measurements campaign to advance the project’s testing phase. The experts also discussed the organisation of workshops with the relevant technological manufacturers, starting from electrolysers’ ones, which would be beneficial for exchanging expertise among the NHyRA experts and industry stakeholders. The creation of an open access book to drive the interested stakeholders among available data and literature was also successfully discussed.
Additionally, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), which hosted the meeting, gave a presentation to illustrate other hydrogen activities they are involved in. The UK National Metrology Institute is in fact involved in a wide range of hydrogen activities including research work, projects with government agencies as well as activities within the industry.
On a more organisational note, the event was principally held at the memorable Bushy House which encompasses 22 acres of ground and has been home to various notable historical figures before being offered to the Royal Society as a site for NPL1.
Photo 2. [Bushy House]
Finally, the consortium partners were also given a tour of the fascinating NPL facilities as well as a small group visit of the NPL Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL). The NPL DIAL is a “completely self‑contained mobile laboratory that carries a suite of additional measurement equipment to monitor meteorological parameters and ambient gas concentrations”2.
Photo 3. [The NPL DIAL]
Photo 4. [Demonstration of H2 leak detection to the NHyRA consortium partners at NPL site]
Looking forward
As the project moves forward, the consortium experts will continue working hand in hand to help the project sail smoothly across its roadmap objectives while contributing to the advancement of hydrogen technologies and promoting sustainable innovation. To date, all the Work Packages of the project have started, with the last being WP4 (led by ENGIE) which started in December. We foresee substantial project results for the year 2025 with a third upcoming in-person consortium meeting in Poland at the INiG premises. Moreover, two workshops (a general stakeholder workshop and a more technical scientific workshop) are planned for the coming months.
Stay tuned for more updates!
Interested in joining the NHyRA Stakeholder Advisory Board? Please contact the project coordinators at: vittoria.troisi@snam.it & matteo.robino@snam.it
References
1 Bushy House. (n.d.). NPL Website. https://www.npl.co.uk/history/bushy-house.
2 NPL Management Limited. (2018). DIAL for remote emissions measurement. https://www.npl.co.uk/getattachment/products-services/Environmental/Absorption-Lidar-DIAL/instruments-dial-flyer.pdf?lang=en-GB.
