The Climate Fix

Transitioning heating to hydrogen w/ Professor Averil Macdonald OBE

Episode Summary

1/3 of the UK's emissions are from heating, also in the UK most housing has a supply of gas, not something common in other countries. This opens the door for some interesting decarbonization options including replacing natural gas with hydrogen. We speak to Professor Averil Macdonald OBE about this and much more.

Episode Notes

1/3 of the UK's emissions are from heating. The UK is also in the rare spot of most housing having a supply of gas, not something common in other countries. This opens the door for some interesting decarbonization options including heating with hydrogen. 

In this episode, we speak to Averil Macdonald, Emeritus Professor at the University of Reading and Professor of Inclusion and Equality at the University of Birmingham. 

Averil was awarded the international Bragg Medal and Prize (1999) by the Institute of Physics, London, the accolade of Woman of Outstanding Achievement in Science (2007) in recognition of her work in Science Communication, the prestigious Plastics Industry Award for Personal Contribution to the Industry (2007), Honorary Doctorates by the University of York (2010) and Kingston University (2015) and an OBE in the Birthday Honours list 2015 for services to women in science.

Averil is currently Deputy Master of the Worshipful Company of Fuellers working alongside HRH Prince Edward the Earl of Wessex as Royal Master. Throughout her time as Deputy Master, she is championing future energy solutions to decarbonize the UK, with a particular emphasis on using hydrogen to decarbonize the UK’s heating systems and to make decarbonized HGVs a reality. She is also focusing the Fuellers’ charitable work on supporting students from disadvantaged backgrounds to consider STEM qualifications as a route into the energy sector through three main charities: Teentech, Generating Genius, and Smallpiece Trust.

Transitioning heating to hydrogen w/ Professor Averil Macdonald OBE by Asim Hussain is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0