Waste firm wins BEIS funding to explore hydrogen-powered machinery

The £175,844 grant comes from the Industrial Hydrogen Accelerator (IHA) programme, which is run by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and funded through the government’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.

ASH will use the money to fund a six-month feasibility study into whether the company could power its industrial plant and equipment using low-carbon hydrogen instead of diesel and electricity.

Neil Hassall, ASH Waste Services’ managing director, said: “We are delighted to have been successful in obtaining government funding for our feasibility study into powering our machinery with hydrogen.

“Reducing our carbon footprint sits at the core of our business and finding greener ways to operate our equipment will be an important leap forward.

“We hope our work will prove to be just the beginning of a UK-wide transition in how we power our machinery.”

Processing and transport

Founded in 1990, ASH Waste Services is part of the wider ASH Group and offers a full suite of waste management services including skip hire, waste collection and disposal across the north west of England and north Wales.

ASH aims to switch more than 50% of its current processing and transport equipment to hydrogen.

According to BEIS, the project will aim to demonstrate a “technically and economically feasible” end-to-end solution that produces low-carbon hydrogen “efficiently and reliably”.

ASH will use solid recovered fuel feedstock to produce hydrogen via gasification and identify and review waste sector industrial processes and equipment suitable for hydrogen alternatives.

ASH will work alongside Deeside-based waste-to-hydrogen specialist Compact Syngas Solutions. ASH says the two companies are already collaborating on a project aimed which aims to convert landfill waste into hydrogen fuel.

Hydrogen

The need for the waste sector to develop alternatives to diesel has become ever more pressing after the government cut the list of businesses entitled to use low-taxed red diesel in April (see letsrecycle.com story).

The IHA is a £26 million programme that funds projects able to demonstrate an end-to-end industrial switch to hydrogen fuel.