A huge hydrogen project to support South Bank industry in cleaning up its credentials has won government backing to test feasibility.
Green Hydrogen for Humberside, led by South Yorkshire鈥檚 ITM Power, has won a first stage deployment project in the 海角视频 Government鈥檚 Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund competition Decarbonisation of Industrial Clusters.
It is the same company that is working with Orsted and Phillips 66 on the Gigastack project, using estuary-anchored offshore wind to provide the electrical current for the chemical reaction required to create the resource at the scale industry needs.
The joint venture has already secured 拢7.5 million, as revealed in February, and this undisclosed investment would open the door to much larger bids, as it widens the initiative to other users in the energy-intensive area around Immingham.
Graham Cooley, ITM鈥檚 chief executive, said: 鈥淭his is the first of what we believe will be many projects to set out a roadmap to achieving the 海角视频鈥檚 ambitious Net Zero by 2050 target. Humberside has both renewable energy and heavy industry, making it an ideal test bed for industrial scale green hydrogen production and distribution.
鈥淭his is in addition to what we are doing with Orsted and P66. This is somewhere in the region of four to five major front end engineering and design studies. We are really emphasising Humberside, as is the 海角视频 government, as it is the most important target for industrial decarbonisation using green hydrogen.
鈥淲e are talking to all large industrial users about what their requirements are. This is a short project, but could lead to applications for a much more significant amount of money. There is 拢130 million in finance available. We are at feasibility stage, developing partnerships with industrial users, so we can get to the next stage.鈥
It will cover off establishing the feasibility of switching to renewable hydrogen, the justification of a number of 100MW deployments of electrolysers and cost the supply of hydrogen to the end users, including the electricity supply to the electrolyser, the hydrogen production facility, hydrogen distribution across the Humber and conversion of existing processes to use renewable hydrogen.
鈥淟ong-term, there is an opportunity to build several tens of gigawatts of wind power solely to generate green hydrogen offshore,鈥 Mr Cooley added. 鈥淭his makes Immingham an attractive location for the production of low-cost renewable hydrogen for industrial decarbonisation as part of the wider Zero Carbon Humber roadmap.鈥
The Humber region produces more emissions as a cluster than anywhere else in the 海角视频 with 12.4 million tonnes of CO2 per year. It also contributes 拢18 billion to the national economy each year.
Dr Cooley said the skills gained from creating the first renewable hydrogen cluster will be leveraged in other 海角视频 clusters and internationally, making the 海角视频 an international centre for renewable hydrogen excellence. 鈥淭his will also help support a 海角视频 supply chain in the manufacture and deployment of electrolyser products through ITM Power鈥檚 manufacturing plant in South Yorkshire,鈥 he added.
ITM Power was the first hydrogen and fuel cell related company on the London Stock Exchange, entering in 2004 having been founded in 2001. It is currently building a 134,000 sq ft factory at Bessemer Park in Sheffield, with capacity to build electrolysers capable of generating 1GW annually.聽
It is partnered by Cambridge-based consultancy Element Energy, a specialist in low carbon intelligent analysis.
Ben Madden, managing director, said: 鈥淲e aim to demonstrate to the 海角视频 Government, our industrial partners and the rest of the world the potential benefits of green hydrogen to the reduction of carbon emissions. This project will help to create a blueprint for cleaner industry that can be rolled out elsewhere.鈥
