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The UK government is broadly supportive of blending hydrogen into the gas network and is actively considering the matter, energy minister Michael Shanks has said. Replacing some of the fuel in natural gas supplies with hydrogen has been promoted as a way of bringing down carbon emissions. Most boilers in homes and businesses can cope with up to 20% of supply consisting of ‘blended’ hydrogen as well as natural gas. Operators of the gas grid have said existing infrastructure could be used to transport a blended mix of hydrogen and natural gas to consumers. A number of projects around Scotland aim to use the country’s renewable electricity supplies to produce ‘green hydrogen’ at scale. However there are questions over whether supply of 100% pure hydrogen which does not produce carbon dioxide when burned would be suitable for the domestic market. Shanks was asked about the UK government’s plans for hydrogen blending when he faced the Scottish Parliament’s Economy Committee on Wednesday. He said: ‘We are actively looking at blending and there are some decision points coming up on that. I think there’s a balance to be struck there’s been a detailed bit of evidence-gathering about the degree you can blend without having an impact on the end users. ‘We’re broadly in favour of some kind of blending, we’re just looking at how that decision point would be made. ‘I can write to the committee on timescales but that is something we’re actively considering.’ A large green hydrogen project in Kintore, Aberdeenshire, was granted planning approval by the local council last month, while there are also hopes the Grangemouth industrial site could be used for hydrogen production. While hydrogen has advantages over natural gas as a clean fuel source, it has significantly less energy density by volume meaning more hydrogen must be supplied to produce the same amount of heating. By Neil Pooran, PA Scotland Political Correspondent Press Association: News source: PA Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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