Introduction: In order to meet the UK governments plants of net zero by 2050 there is a need for no carbon heat. Hydrogen for heat provides an opportunity to meet the challenging target while minimizing disruption to customers and therefor, is an attractive alternative to natural gas.

 SGN’s H100 project aims to demonstrate hydrogen can be distributed safely to people’s homes.  To ensure the highest level of safety on this ‘first of its kind’ hydrogen network, Excess Flow Valves will be installed on every service of the network to avoid risk of hydrogen build up in buildings. 

Excess Flow Valves are an essential safety feature within the gas network designed to close and stop gas flow if the service, meter or internal pipework suffers a catastrophic failure. Stopping the flow of gas from a damaged service significantly reduces the risk of a fire, explosion, injury and/or property damage.

Through SGN’s H100 project the EFVs currently used on natural gas services were tested for suitability with hydrogen. The project identified that the higher flow rates of hydrogen caused the EFV to ‘trip’ erratically and therefor deemed them unsuitable.

Objectives: The objectives of his project are to:

·         Develop a new Gas Industry Standard and specification for a hydrogen excess flow valve.
·         Industry approval of the new standard
·         Development of a prototype EFV that has been tested against the new standard and meets the criteria set out in the specification
·         Final report outlining the outcomes of the tests