Hydrogen PREQUEL:
Exploring practical ways to reduce LH2 losses and operational disruption in storage and transfer
About Hydrogen PREQUEL
Hydrogen PREQUEL is a concept-stage initiative from the University of Southampton, currently in the Innovate UK ICURe Explore programme. Our aim here is simple: learn fast from practitioners.
This is not a product advertisement, and we’re not assuming we already understand your world. We have a technical concept, but ICURe Explore is about challenging our assumptions with evidence, especially the things we don’t yet know.
The problem we’re exploring
In liquid hydrogen operations, small inefficiencies can become big losses: boil-off, venting, extended cool-down time, operational downtime, and additional safety/approval burden. We’re exploring whether a compact, low-power cooling approach can capture and control boil-off to reduce hydrogen loss without the complexity of a full-scale liquefier.
Beyond logistics, we are also investigating how this active thermal management system can provide ultra-low temperature cooling capacity for specialised applications, such as defence sensors and quantum technologies, where maintaining deep-cryogenic stability is mission-critical.
We want to understand...
Where do losses really come from in your operation (steady storage, transfer, cool-down, waiting periods, standby, maintenance)?
What are the operational “red flags” (safety, reliability, maintenance, certification, integration complexity)?
What data would you trust to evaluate a concept like this (duty cycle, downtime triggers, acceptable CAPEX/OPEX trade-offs)?
Who actually decides (payer/specifier/operator/safety gatekeeper), and what does “approval” look like?
Who we’re hoping to hear from
We’re currently speaking with stakeholders across:
Industrial Developers of Liquid Hydrogen Technology
Liquid Hydrogen Fuelling Companies
International Shippers of Liquid Hydrogen
Defence and off-grid energy systems
Superconductivity and Quantum Computing
What you get for helping
If you submit the form, we can :
Share a short, anonymised summary of what we’re learning across the ecosystem
Offer a brief follow-up conversation focused on your context (no sales pitch)
Invite to short closed online roundtable
Office Hours / Ask-an-academic
Opportunity to shape test requirements (before any prototype exists)
Early access list for first prototype trials / first-look briefings
Our cryogenic testing facility at the University of Southampton
About the team
Hydrogen PREQUEL is a research-led market discovery project at the University of Southampton. Liquid hydrogen enables high-density energy delivery, but operators repeatedly tell us that small inefficiencies can become major operational friction: boil-off and venting, long cool-down and standby losses, and the added safety and approval burden that slows projects down.
We are exploring whether a compact, lower-power “partial reliquefication / active cooling” approach could reduce hydrogen losses and disruption without requiring a full-scale liquefier everywhere. At this stage we do not have a commercial product - ICURe Explore is helping us learn what we don’t know, challenge our assumptions, and understand the real constraints that determine adoption.
We’re speaking with stakeholders across industrial LH2 developers, refuelling and mobility infrastructure, ports/terminals and shipping supply chains, defence/off-grid integrators, and specialist low-temperature engineering (including helium-replacement interest areas). If you’re not the right person, a warm introduction to the actual owner (operations, safety, engineering, project delivery) is hugely valuable.
Request a short discovery call
If you can spare 2 minutes, please complete the short form below.
It helps us reach the right people and ask better questions.
Website powered by
