A 拢75 million bid to accelerate the cleaning up of heavy industry on the Humber has been submitted to government.
Twelve leading companies and organisations that form the Zero Carbon Humber partnership have signed off the application for the huge carbon capture and hydrogen production scheme involving a pan-regional pipeline and subsea storage.
Together they represent thousands of employees, and by targeting the most carbon intensive area in the 海角视频, aim to take a huge step towards 2050 targets, supporting clean growth and future-proofing vital industries - protecting and creating jobs.
Uniting international energy companies, heavy industry, leading infrastructure and logistics operators, global engineering firms and academic institutions in a plan to create the world鈥檚 first net zero industrial cluster by 2040, the scheme is enabled by shared infrastructure.
On board are Associated British Ports, British Steel, Centrica Storage Ltd, Drax Group,聽 Equinor, Mitsubishi Power, National Grid Ventures, PX Group, SSE Thermal, Saltend Cogeneration Company Ltd, Uniper, and the University of Sheffield鈥檚 Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.
Initial work has forecast it could reduce the 海角视频鈥檚 annual emissions by 15 per cent and save industry around 拢27.5 billion in carbon taxes by 2040. It could safeguard 55,000 existing jobs in the region, while creating thousands of new roles and developing skills, apprenticeships and educational opportunities.
It is part of the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge, which forms part the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, with significant investment also coming from the companies within the partnership.
The anchor project is the Equinor-led Hydrogen to Humber (H2H) Saltend project, which will establish the world鈥檚 largest hydrogen production plant with carbon capture at PX鈥檚 Saltend Chemicals Park.
Al Cook, executive vice president and country manager at Equinor, said: 鈥淭he Zero Carbon Humber bid demonstrates the ambitious action needed to drive a low carbon recovery and reach net zero. This proposal, supported by a broad group of companies, will bring huge聽 benefits to the Humber economy, protecting and creating jobs and reducing emissions.
鈥淭he H2H Saltend project at the centre of this bid will聽 both demonstrate the value of hydrogen and carbon capture across the wider energy system, and聽 unlock the transformation of the Humber into the 海角视频鈥檚 largest and greenest industrial cluster.
鈥淲e and our partners will continue to progress our proposals, working closely with key stakeholders.听 Together we can make the Humber and the 海角视频 the environmental standard bearer that the world can learn from.鈥
Announced in the summer, it would convert natural gas to hydrogen and capture the carbon dioxide, allowing fuel switching by industrial customers and blending at the on-site Triton Power station.
A pipeline network would then link H2H Saltend to energy-intensive industrial sites throughout the region, enabling further decarbonisation. Captured CO2 would be聽 compressed at Centrica Storage鈥檚 Easington site and pumped into depleted caverns under the North Sea using offshore infrastructure shared with the Teesside industrial cluster.听
The bid for matched funding covers obtaining land rights, development consents and front-end engineering design for H2H Saltend and the onshore pipeline infrastructure for CO2 and hydrogen, enabling the scheme to move towards a final investment decision on construction during 2023, with H2H Saltend and associated infrastructure expected to come online around 2026.
Drax Power Station would connect to the completed pipeline network, underpinning the scheme with bioenergy with carbon capture and storage 鈥 negative emissions technology that it is pioneering, seen as essential to decarbonising the Humber cluster.
The pipeline network will also run via SSE Thermal鈥檚 Keadby site, where it is developing Keadby Three. This could become the 海角视频鈥檚 first gas-fired power station equipped with carbon capture technology by the mid-2020s.
Heading east, British Steel could benefit from the ZCH infrastructure as part of its drive to lower emissions.
Ron Deelen, chief executive of the Scunthorpe-headquartered giant, said: 鈥淲e have ambitious plans to invest in a range of technologies to reduce the carbon intensity of our聽 operations, with solutions that are globally recognised and acceptable to customers.
鈥淭he development of the ZCH project, with the proposed installation of a dual CCS and hydrogen supply pipeline, will afford us the opportunity to utilise a range of techniques to reduce the carbon intensity of our operations.听
鈥淭his project complements the long-term decarbonising technology roadmap of British Steel.鈥
Near Immingham, Uniper is planning to add to its European hydrogen ambitions by developing clean hydrogen production at its North Killingholme site, also taken in by the network. It is also involved in an aligned hydrogen and carbon capture project led by VPI Immingham combined heat and power plant-owning Vitol Group, together with Phillips 66, which is also in the bidding.听
ABP will support the global reach of the low carbon products and chemicals produced on both banks.
The ZCH projects are supported by the University of Sheffield鈥檚 Advanced Manufacturing Research聽 Centre, which models the wider economic and supply chain opportunities in the 海角视频 provided by these new technologies.
It is seen as a potential inward investment magnet too, while linking with other plans for the integration of offshore wind power into hydrogen production, decarbonising the regional gas grid, supplying hydrogen transport fuelling hubs, providing聽 CO2 storage services to other industrial clusters and creating the world鈥檚 first sustainable maritime refuelling port.
