COSH-AIR is creating global and UK scenarios to help us understand how we might use hydrogen in the future. We are particularly interested in how emissions of all types of air pollutants might change as we decarbonise our energy system.
Greenhouse gas emissions will reduce, but different amounts of carbon dioxide and methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) could be produced depending on how much hydrogen is used for energy in the future and how it is produced.
Hydrogen is an “indirect” greenhouse gas as it reacts with atmospheric chemicals including methane. One of our objectives is to estimate how emissions of fugitive hydrogen might change in the future.
Other pollutants such as NOx and particulate emissions are expected to reduce as we move away from fossil fuels, but the pace of the reduction and the impacts, particularly in our cities, will depend on how the transition to a low-carbon energy system unfolds.
Estimating fugitive hydrogen emissions
We are using the TIAM-UCL global energy system model at UCL to estimate global fugitive hydrogen emissions.
TIAM-UCL produces scenarios of future energy system transitions. We are examining a range of scenarios with different levels of hydrogen and different types of hydrogen infrastructure to understand the potential for fugitive hydrogen emissions.
Estimating future UK air pollution
We are using the UK TIMES model at UCL to produce similar future energy system scenarios with different levels of hydrogen, but for the UK only. UK TIMES has a similar but more detailed representation of the UK energy system to TIAM-UCL and explores decarbonisation pathways to the year 2060.
We are using the UKIAM integrated emissions modelling system at Imperial College to estimate air pollution resulting from UK economic activities at high spatial resolution. A key challenge is to coherently link UK TIMES to UKIAM.
