Existing gas supply and distribution infrastructure was never designed to meet the challenges of containing hydrogen. We are however headed toward a world that will rely on hydrogen as a clean energy source. Whilst natural gas leakage from gas flow control hardware to atmosphere is already a major environmental problem, if the same technology is used in a future hydrogen supply chain without modification, the rate of leakage will be significantly higher due to hydrogen being the smallest element. This potential hydrogen leakage represents a serious financial and environmental issue for our future energy networks, with its global warming potential being 11x that of CO₂.

Actuation Lab is using its origami-inspired design methodology to create zero-emission flow control hardware, eliminating the wear components that currently cause massive gas leakage, for a sustainable net-zero energy supply system.