Hydrogen demand is estimated to make up 20-35% of the UK’s final energy consumption by 2035. It presents the highest potential for decarbonisation in heavy industry and manufacturing sectors, with the emerging consensus that the majority of demand within South Yorkshire will be accounted for by heavy industry and manufacturing, mainly from steel and glass.
SYSC has had a range of projects exploring hydrogen as an energy source in South Yorkshire. “Decarbonisation of heavy industries” has looked at the implications for industrial processes if energy inputs transition from fossil fuel to hydrogen sources. Hydrogen supply chains have also been considered, both in terms of production methods and readiness and resilience for the future. We have also conducted analysis of hydrogen standards, assessing G20 countries on legislation, regulation and investment in hydrogen technologies.
Last year, the SYSC published the State of Hydrogen in South Yorkshire report. It aimed to provide readily actionable recommendations for South Yorkshire’s Investment Zone and consists of analyses of national and regional policy landscapes, regional manufacturing and innovation capabilities, supply chain maturity, and production capacity and demand. The report also assessed the opportunities and challenges to grow the sector in South Yorkshire. The report found that South Yorkshire has the potential to be a national and even global leader in hydrogen and the way it is used safely, but quick and decisive action by regional policymakers is needed.
Key Insights:
The “Towards a Unified Hydrogen Standard” case study has sought to ascertain hydrogen economy readiness, benchmarking hydrogen economy maturity of the UK (in terms of investment, legislation, and strategy) against other G20 nations. The study found the UK to be one of the frontrunners, together with the US and China in hydrogen economy maturity. For the UK, and particularly regions such as South Yorkshire seeking to embed themselves in the hydrogen economy, this benchmarking provides insight into the country’s competitive positioning relative to other G20 members.
The “Towards a Resilience Evaluation Framework for Hydrogen Supply Chains” case study investigated how resilience could be built into hydrogen supply chains. The project identified the main challenges within the hydrogen supply chain to be raw material dependencies, weather risks, integration challenges, and sensitivity to stakeholder perceptions. In South Yorkshire, this means that resilience planning should be integrated with environmental regulation, energy market design, and community engagement. Supporting renewable energy communities and decentralised production would enhance both technical resilience and social equity, requiring cross-disciplinary collaboration. The project identified supply network integration as another driver of resilience. Building partnerships across transport, manufacturing, logistics, and heavy industry can foster collective resilience, reduce vulnerabilities, and create high-value jobs, supporting a just transition.
Another case study, “Scoping a Hydrogen Network for the South Yorkshire Region”, utilised the regional optimisation model AENi to understand where hydrogen clusters could be established to achieve a cost optimal scale-up of hydrogen supply in South Yorkshire. The study considered 21 energy, heat and emission intense manufacturing companies of variable size in South Yorkshire. The AENi software, developed as a spin-out from the Brown group at University of Sheffield, was used to find a cost optimal network linking these sites to the grid supply point at Thurcroft. Although this was just an initial modelling exercise and further in-depth collaboration is needed to develop a more accurate model, including economic analysis to predict the most favourable roadmap for roll out, the current project findings show that a hydrogen network for industrial sites is likely feasible using existing electrical grid connections.
It is important to note that successful hydrogen deployment depends not only on technical feasibility, but on societal and institutional readiness. Hydrogen storage and road-based distribution systems will operate within industrial estates, logistics corridors and alongside residential communities. The existing evidence base is heavily weighted toward techno-economic modelling and carbon intensity analysis, with comparatively limited research examining multi-stakeholder social acceptance, particularly for storage and transport infrastructure. The HySaaS: Securing Social Licence for Hydrogen Storage and Distribution in South Yorkshire project, also explored in a case study, aimed to address this gap by providing a structured, multi-stakeholder assessment of social acceptance focused specifically on hydrogen storage and distribution, the parts of the value chain most visible to communities and emergency responders.
The research found that acceptance of hydrogen storage and distribution is broadly positive but strongly conditioned by perceptions of safety and risk. Across all stakeholder groups, safety emerged as the dominant determinant of acceptance. Crucially, all groups responded positively to enhanced monitoring and transparency. More than 80% of public respondents indicated that additional monitoring systems would increase their comfort with hydrogen storage and distribution. This suggests that visible, data-driven safety mechanisms can materially improve acceptance.
The findings suggest that hydrogen storage and distribution can secure social licence if deployment is treated as a governance and trust challenge as much as a technical one. To improve social acceptance and reduce perceived risk, hydrogen demonstrator projects in South Yorkshire should aim to combine monitored assets, responder training and community engagement, thus strengthening the commercial case for hydrogen investment.
View the case studies in full below
Read the case studies in full below:
- Towards a Resilience Evaluation Framework for Hydrogen Supply Chains
- Towards a Unified Hydrogen Standard: Benchmarking G20 Nations’ Hydrogen Economy Maturity
- HySaaS: Securing Social Licence for Hydrogen Storage and Distribution in South Yorkshire
- Scoping a Hydrogen Network for the South Yorkshire Region using the Network Optimisation Model AENi
