For The First Time Since The 1970s,

a town has burnt gas with 20% rather than 2% hydrogen in its gas supply,

photograph Andrew Curtis/Geograph, 650 homes in Winlaton, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, have been using hydrogen to power their boilers, cookers, hobs and fires, the trial was run by Cadent and Northern Gas Networks (NGN), which sent a letter to residents last month to let them know it would be starting 'soon', it withheld the exact start date to avoid the change being blamed for any boiler problems - and residents did not seem to notice, the use of hydrogen as an energy source commenced 227 years ago when William Murdoch lit his house and office in Redruth, Cornwall from town gas---a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Over the next century, gas-works and gas distribution pipelines were built across the United Kingdom. The commercialisation of natural gas from the North Sea led to a broad decline of town gas production in the UK. But here is the thing I do not understand, and something many have seemed to have forgotten, for a couple of hundred years  most of Great Britain used ’town or as it was also called coal gas’ which had at least 50% of hydrogen in its make up! so why on earth would there be a problem with gas with just 20% hydrogen content? I can not remember anything changing when town/coal gas was replaced by gas made from oil and later by natural gas from the North Sea, in any event I guess 20% hydrogen in our gas supply will be the norm in years to come.