Hydrogen Storage Project Using Depleted Uranium in The UK

The UK government is set to offer a section of £32.9m hydrogen fund to investigate the use of depleted uranium as an energy storage option. Hydrogen Industry Leaders explores what this entails.

As one of five projects receiving a total of £32.9m from the second phase of the Longer Duration Energy Storage (LODES) competition to develop storage opportunities through heat, electricity or low-carbon carriers such as hydrogen.

With this project coming in the form of a large partnership the competition awarded, EDF UK R&D, in partnership with the University of Bristol, Urenco, and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), £7.73m to develop a hydrogen storage demonstrator utilising depleted uranium.

The project will see electricity converted into hydrogen via electrolysis and stored for future use, either directly as hydrogen, or converted back to electricity via a fuel cell.

Commenting on this, Patrick Dupeyrat, Director of EDF R&D UK, said: “Hydrogen is an exciting and provable future solution for the UK’s energy industry. Following the launch of this project, our demonstration technology will be a world first, allowing us to utilise depleted uranium to store hydrogen and provide grid flexibility.