Water Industry Gives Green Light for Hydrogen

“We see hydrogen as an opportunity to decarbonise key pillars of our society – including things that form part of our critical infrastructure like water and waste,” said Dr Baxter. “This is about sustainable development and making our industries much more sustainable by being able to understand exactly what feedstocks and wastes we have and how we can use them more effectively. It is a circular economy of energy and waste.”

Baxter explained how historically hydrogen has been reliant on the exploitation of fossil fuels, but that there are ‘clean’ ways of producing it and trials and feasibility studies are taking place at water utilities globally exploring cleaner, greener ways of producing hydrogen.

Capturing carbon

New resource recovery opportunities were explored during the technology showcase, both of which have the potential to simultaneously improve the wastewater treatment process while generating clean hydrogen. The first was from Hazer Group, an Australian company which produces fuel-cell grade hydrogen and high-quality graphite from methane, with low CO₂ emissions.

“Rather than typical gas-based hydrogen production which produces CO₂ as a by-product, we produce graphite – a solid, capturable and usable product,” said chief executive Geoff Ward. “It’s a clean and cost-effective technology and, when paired with renewable biogas, has the lowest emissions profile of any available technology - going beyond where solar and electrolysis can reach and taking methane originated from waste out of the atmosphere and capturing all the carbon associated with the feedstock.”

UK-based Organics operates globally and is focused on renewable energy, ammonia recovery and anaerobic digestion. Commercial director Keith Richardson explained how the company’s patented system recovers ammonia from high-strength wastewater and turns it into a range of saleable ammonia products, along with hydrogen.

Organics already has a well-established thermal ammonia stripper which is used to remove ammonia from, for example, watering liquors and landfill leachates. The recovered ammonia can be used as a fertiliser, a raw material for industrial processes or as a feedstock for ammonia-cracking processes that could generate green hydrogen.

Global update

In addition to the focus on hydrogen, the webinar also included updates on global water stories, including the rollout of wastewater-based epidemiology and progress on diversity and inclusion in the water sector.

Water Action Platform participants were also invited to take part in a Digital Twin Tour from Idrica, a Spanish-headquartered company specialising in services and solutions for global water utilities. The free event, which took place on Wednesday 9 June, moderated by Piers Clark and featuring a keynote address by Idrica chief executive Jaime Barba.

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