The decarbonisation of large-scale industrial processes was significantly boosted today as our team at Ryze signed an agreement to supply research-and-development leaders Glass Futures with daily hydrogen deliveries for landmark trials.

While the scale and ambition for using hydrogen in the long term eclipses the scale of infrastructure available presently, this deal provides a stable, high-quality supply to allow innovation to advance with security and confidence.

This long-term hydrogen supply agreement builds on the MoU we signed with Glass Futures in 2023 and will ensure daily hydrogen supply to the St. Helens-based research centre from July. It will enable hydrogen uptake to be quicker, more effective, and safer – all at a lower cost.

Our central mission at Ryze is to supply clean fuels and the infrastructure needed to power industry, transport, and other sectors; so this agreement is another crucial step in accelerating the energy transition.

“This is a game-changing supply to an organisation that is working tirelessly to reduce emissions and drive innovation across the glass and foundation industries, and we’re delighted to be taking our relationship with Glass Futures to the next level,” said Alex Webster, Head of Business Development at Ryze.

Glass Futures is a disruptive not-for-profit research-and-technology organisation that runs a £54m facility designed to speed up the decarbonisation of industrial processes. It has already powered a trial in Sheffield, which showed that using hydrogen to power steelmaking could reduce carbon emissions by more than 40 per cent. Ryze is developing delivery infrastructure on-site, and hydrogen trials will commence in the summer of 2024.

Glass Futures’ General Manager Aston Fuller said testing was only possible with a high-quality, resilient hydrogen supply.

“We have a blossoming hydrogen infrastructure capability which enables research in a meaningful, strategic way,” he explained.

“There is a real intrigue about hydrogen’s use in industrial processes, whether that’s HAR streams or the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, and while we’ve been involved in various pilots and test programmes, we want to understand how hydrogen works over an extended period of time and its impact on industrial processes.

“The facility we have built in St Helens is globally unique and pioneering, and this deal with Ryze is telling people to ‘come and do your hydrogen research in the UK.”

Ryze Business Development Manager Jake Harding added: “The work Ryze is doing to support fossil fuel displacement is fundamental to the UK’s decarbonisation strategy, and we’re excited about this period of hydrogen innovation with the Glass Futures’ membership.”

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