Hydrologiq has won a grant competition to develop and improve the hydrogen supply chain alongside project partners Motive Fuels and Reynolds Logistics, with funding from Digital Catapult.
Hydrologiq has been announced as one of the winners of Digital Catapult’s Digital Supply Chain Hub testbed competition. Supported by project partners Motive Fuels and Reynolds Logistics, lead participant Hydrologiq will build an interactive digital version of the emerging hydrogen supply chain for hydrogen-powered generator applications.
A new digital version of the hydrogen supply chain
This grant competition called on UK suppliers and manufacturers to develop and test digital twins of supply chains with a view to increasing business resilience and supply sustainability. As part of the national testbeds, Hydrologiq will work with suppliers and end users of hydrogen in off-grid applications to gather data and build a digital platform that can be used for applications such as measuring supply chain emissions, optimising inventory management and or testing the impact of changes to the supply chain (players or product). In turn, this will allow new strategies and technologies to be tested on replica supply chains without impacting everyday operations. The aim is to transform supply chain integration and make it more sustainable in the long-term. The testbed will be co-funded by Digital Catapult with each testbed receiving up to £1.5million in co-investment.
The testbed will be built in collaboration with Motive Fuels and Reynolds Logistics, with other project participants and observers including gas provider BOC, rental businesses Speedy Services and Renewable Generation Limited, and hydrogen-powered generator manufacturers EODev.
Accelerating growth and reducing investment risk
With the recent focus on hydrogen becoming a widely-used fuel across various industries and use cases, as well as the challenges for customers of navigating an emerging supply chain, the need for industry adoption of new supply chain processes is vital to ensure the adoption of hydrogen is a smooth process. The testbed will provide suppliers and end users in the hydrogen industry with the opportunity to dry-run changes to the supply chain, informing investment business cases and ensuring any potential disruption is adequately factored into everyday operations. Whilst doing this, Digital Catapult and Hydrologiq will seek to ensure business challenges in the hydrogen supply chain for non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) are resolved as well as supporting sustainable economic growth in the UK.
Tim Lawrence, Director of the Digital Supply Chain Hub said: “The challenges that are facing UK manufacturing are well known, the pandemic and the threats of climate crisis all adding to their woes. Digital technologies are available to address these pressures but adoption in industry has proved to be difficult because there is not an environment where their value can be tested without impacting the actual supply chain.”
“These national testbeds create a digital environment where technologies can be developed and trialled. We’re building supply chains across the UK which are more efficient, resilient and sustainable.”
Aran Bates, Director of Hydrologiq said: “The need for rapid decarbonisation is clear and there are solutions that can solve it, what is often less clear is that the integration of these technologies and supply chains is one of the key roadblocks to adoption. A lack of integration leads to a great number of uptake barriers, from information opacity to high costs. End users won’t take up hydrogen unless we fix this.”
About Digital Catapult
Digital Catapult is the UK authority on advanced digital technology. Through collaboration and innovation, they accelerate industry adoption to drive growth and opportunity across the Economy.
They bring together an expert and enterprising community of researchers, startups, scaleups and industry leaders to discover new ways to solve big challenges that will unlock the UK’s future potential. Through their specialist programs and experimental facilities, they make sure that innovation thrives and the right solutions make it to the real world.
Their goal is to accelerate new possibilities in everything they do and for every business they partner with the journey – breaking down barriers, de-risking innovation, opening up markets and responsibly shaping the products, services and experiences of the future.
Digital Catapult is part of the Catapult Network that supports businesses in transforming great ideas into valuable products and services. We are a network of world-leading technology and innovation centres established by Innovate UK.
About Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub
The Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub is a digital innovation ecosystem that empowers individuals and organisations to work together to make supply chains Smarter.
Developed by Digital Catapult and funded by the Made Smarter Innovation challenge at UKRI, the Hub will transform UK manufacturing by accelerating digital innovation – making supply chains more efficient, resilient and sustainable.
Harnessing the power of UK manufacturing, bringing businesses and researchers together to develop new solutions, tackling sector specific and industry wide challenges, and building a powerful UK supply chain community.
For more information, visit www.digitalsupplychainhub.uk
About Made Smarter Innovation
Made Smarter Innovation is a national programme to help businesses who make things capitalise on new digital technologies.
The program will support the transformation of the UK’s manufacturing capabilities through the development and innovation of industrial digital technologies. With UK Manufacturers having access to a digital innovation ecosystem that helps prove their idea, quickly develop it with experts and scale it.
The £300 million partnership between government and industry will provide match-funding, specialist advice and result in radical manufacturing solutions. Made Smarter Innovation is delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
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