As housing developers grapple with the implications of a changing landscape with legislative changes driving the delivery of more sustainable homes, brick manufacturer Michelmersh is piloting an innovative global project to assess a new brick manufacturing process using green hydrogen. Michelmersh’s innovation director, Sarah Le Gresley, explains more about the potential that lies behind the trial to produce the world’s first 100% hydrogen-fired clay brick.
The nation’s housing stock is viewed by policymakers as a key component of the long-term aim to deliver a low-carbon future. COP26 outlined the perils of the impending climate crisis and government moves such as the changes implemented to Part L of the Building Regulations are designed to ensure we start building more energy-efficient, low-carbon, sustainable homes.
As an interim measure before the full force of the Future Homes Standard becomes a reality in three years’ time, the immediate objective is to direct the construction of new homes, so they produce 31% lower carbon emissions.
According to the Climate Change Committee, the built environment accounts for around 40% of UK greenhouse gas emissions, with approximately 14% of this coming from the 28 million homes in the UK. This puts the future construction of sustainable new homes front and centre in the fight to create a low-carbon future.
The construction sector must play a leading role in this collective endeavour and continue to create low-emission solutions for the houses we occupy and the buildings we use. But to drive the industry’s sustainability agenda, the products that form the foundation of construction are being reassessed.
Housebuilders are taking a keener interest in construction product manufacturing processes and outcomes. As a result, it is in the best commercial and ethical interests of all construction product manufacturers to make sure operations can satisfy growing demands for proven sustainable solutions.
At Michelmersh, we understand our responsibilities in this area and are actively working on a series of environmentally focused initiatives, including a shift to all renewable electricity by the end of 2022. These initiatives are supported by an overall corporate commitment to minimise our carbon footprint and seek out new and innovative approaches to how we develop and manufacture the brick options housebuilders want.
One project currently underway at Michelmersh is a feasibility study of fuel switching to replace natural gas with green hydrogen (hydrogen produced by splitting water by electrolysis and powered by renewables) in our brick making process.
This project is seeing us lead a global flagship physical study – backed by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). It aims to demonstrate the viability of fuel switching and see how using green hydrogen in the firing process can inspire radical change across the brick manufacturing industry.
We have created a new brand, HyBrick™, to focus the progression and learnings of the project and are collaborating with committed partners including low emission fuel suppliers, sustainability experts, academics, and infrastructure providers. The results of the brick production trials using hydrogen as the energy source will be subject to rigorous independent testing, so that industry-wide structural and characteristic data can be assessed and compared with the performance of clay bricks produced in kilns using natural gas.
The potential that lies behind the production of the world’s first 100% hydrogen-fired clay brick could be a landmark step for brickmakers and the construction industry. The anticipated outcomes deliver a real incentive to encourage the sector to follow suit. Experts predict that making a fuel switch to green hydrogen will enable the Michelmersh Group to reduce its carbon emissions by over 60%.
Like many other stakeholders, and specifiers striving to achieve net zero for their projects, we await the results of the HyBrick™ trials with great interest.
