New project to help solve energy poverty for isolated communities in Africa through cooking fuel solution

Loughborough University and the Consortium for Battery Innovation are working together to pair advanced lead batteries with green hydrogen to deliver a new source of clean, reliable, and sustainable energy storage for off-grid communities in Africa.

Awarded through Horizon Europe, this collaborative, four-year project called LoCEL-H2, (or ‘Low-cost, circular, plug and play, off-grid energy for remote locations - including hydrogen), combines the expertise of lead battery manufacturers, academics, national laboratories, component manufacturers, and companies who are focused on integration, microgrids and renewables.

LoCEL-H2 aims to generate renewable energy, storage, and fuel for deployment in isolated and remote regions of Africa to support communities that cannot connect to an electricity grid. Loughborough University’s Professor Dani Strickland, an expert in electrical powering engineering, Dr Jonathan Wilson, a manufacturing expert, and Dr Lizzie Ashton, a chemistry expert, will lead on developing a battolyser – a combined battery/electrolyser - to produce green hydrogen for cooking.

The lead acid battolyser was invented at Loughborough University to produce low-cost green hydrogen using solar panels and this project looks to scale-up the design - taking it from a small laboratory prototype to a useable system.

The project will also develop a battery-powered microgrid and this will be used in combination with Dr Strickland’s battolyser to allow communities to access and store renewable energy.

LoCEL-H2 will conclude by piloting the innovative energy solution in remote regions of Zambia and Ivory Coast.

Professor Strickland commented: “Designing and scaling up a battolyser that can produce hydrogen for clean cooking will remove the requirement to burn charcoal. This will help with carbon reduction and has additional health benefits.

“This project is unique because it brings together the benefits of different energy storage types, renewable energy sources, reduced carbon emissions and access to clean energy in off-grid communities.

“The team at Loughborough is delighted to be part of this prestigious project and is looking forward to deploying the technology in the field in both Ivory Coast and Zambia.

“We hope to take the battolyser technology from laboratory protype through to a cost-effective product with real world application.”

“The excitement around this innovative project is reflected by everyone involved,” said Dr Carl Telford, the senior research and innovation manager at the Consortium for Battery Innovation.

“Energy poverty is a problem that affects millions of people worldwide because they lack consistent access to electricity.”

For more information on the project, watch the LoCEL-H2 Kick-off video or visit the dedicated website.

Notes for editors

Press release reference number: 23/83

Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.

It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2023 QS World University Rankings – the seventh year running – and University of the Year for Sport by The Times and Sunday Times University Guide 2022.

Loughborough is ranked 7th in The UK Complete University Guide 2023, 10th in the Guardian University League Table 2023 and 11th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023.

Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’, and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 over 90% of its research was rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally-excellent’. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.

The Loughborough University London campus is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities. It is home to influential thought leaders, pioneering researchers and creative innovators who provide students with the highest quality of teaching and the very latest in modern thinking.

Categories