JEC World 2022 at Paris

Hydrogen is set to play an important role in our future energy mix. Advances in hydrogen technology and decreasing renewable energy costs, are making it easier and cheaper to produce 'green hydrogen'. Low carbon hydrogen will help us decarbonise high-energy transportation and industry needs from HGVs to aircraft and glass to steel manufacture, so we can meet net zero emission targets and increase energy security. But there are a number of challenges to accelerating the hydrogen economy.

Composites will play a crucial role in providing solutions in hydrogen innovation. Watch our animation to find out more.

In its first annual review of the SusWIND programme, the NCC has published the key findings of the programme and sets out ambitious plans to tackle the main challenges of legacy and future blades. 

Globally, around 14,000 wind turbines blades are reaching the end of their usable life within the next two to three years - that’s almost 50,000 tonnes of blades that are currently destined for landfill or incineration.  Based on the current installed capacity, this could increase tenfold by the end of the decade.

Watch the film on our SusWIND programme, which aims to accelerate sustainable composites materials and technologies for wind turbine blades. 

As hydrogen has emerged as one of the most promising solutions for achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the design of pressure vessels for transport and storage has been drawing increasing interest within industry.

The NCC is advancing the knowledge required to establish a dynamic UK supply chain, investing in hydrogen pressure vessel research and development to seed manufacture in the UK, progressing the technology to help it to remain competitive in the future. Find out more about this project in our case study. 

To gain competitive advantage in a global marketplace, it is crucial for companies to digitalise processes to reduce product development timelines and maintain engineering leadership. For digital engineering, the use of Multi-Disciplinary Optimisation (MDO) techniques offer industry a new approach to product development, redesigning and remaking products with net-zero targets in mind.  

Camilla Osmiani, Advanced Research Engineer at the NCC, talks about how MDO works, the benefits it offers, and its application as a proof-of-concept to a hydrogen pressure vessel.

Download the NCC's corporate brochure

Download the report from the Composites Leadership Forum, co-authored by the NCC, which highlights the fundamental role composite materials will play in enabling the UK to achieve a net zero future