The Sabaf Group, through its subsidiary ARC, is one of the key strategic suppliers to the British Government’s hydrogen feasibility project Hy4Heat. The Hy4Heat project aims to establish whether it is technically possible, safe and convenient to replace natural gas (methane) with 100% hydrogen in residential and commercial buildings and gas appliances. The Hy4Heat project is financed by BEIS, (the UK governments Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy) and involves ten separate work packages, project managed by Arup + partners. Work Package 4 (Domestic hydrogen gas appliance development) covers cooking and heating appliances, with the cooking appliances being supplied by Glen Dimplex Consumer Appliances in partnership with Enertek International Ltd (an independent specialist R&D consultancy) as hydrogen appliance development partners. Glen Dimplex, aware of ARC’s capabilities, skills and know-how, asked the Padua-based company to develop a new series of domestic hydrogen-fuelled burners.
ARC, accepting the assignment, has developed and produced the burners that have now been specified on the world’s first UKCA Certified ranges of 100% hydrogen hobs and cookers. These have been installed on the cooking appliances being demonstrated at HyHome, two purpose built houses demonstrating hydrogen appliances in a ‘real life’ scenario, sponsored by Northern Gas Networks (NGN), Cadent and BEIS at NGN’s site at Low Thornley near Gateshead in the North of England.
Immediately following the Hy4Heat project, Glen Dimplex cooking appliances incorporating ARC burners will be specified for the Community Trial involving 300 homes being organised by Scottish Gas Networks (SGN) in Fife, commencing in 2022. Beyond the Community Trial, the UK Government intends to commission a ‘Village Trial’ with around 2,500 homes in 2025 and a ‘Town Trial’ (10,000 homes) in the latter part of the decade prior to potentially converting the whole UK gas grid to hydrogen over future years.
Work Package 5B (Commercial hydrogen gas appliance development) includes commercial catering equipment where ARC have a strong presence and again, in conjunction with Enertek International, have developed commercial hob burners for Falcon Foodservice Equipment Ltd who are the first commercial catering equipment manufacturer to have a fully UKCA Certified range of 100% hydrogen appliances. Note that the requirements for UKCA Certification are currently identical to those required for EC Certification hence EC Certificates can be made available when or if necessary, via the Notified Body involved (BSi Certification Services). “Sabaf strongly promotes environmental sustainability and is ready to face the challenges of the energy transition, which opens up new growth opportunities for our Group. Also by virtue of ARC’s reputation and skills we are the ideal partner for the development of a highly innovative product – summarizes Pietro Iotti, Chief Executive Officer of Sabaf -. In a few months, thanks to the close collaboration between the technical offices of our Group, we presented the project to Glen Dimplex who immediately validated and approved it in collaboration with Enertek International, the UK’s leading engineering consultancy for the development and testing of hydrogen equipment. Hydrogen today represents a possible solution to the problem of global warming as it allows the zeroing of CO2 emissions in domestic cooking. We have accepted the challenge and produced working samples that meet the ambitious project specifications. It is an important step towards concrete sustainable solutions in large-scale applications”.
