Norwegian state-controlled energy company Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last week announced it is leading a project in the UK that combines hydrogen production and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The project, called Hydrogen to Humber Saltend (H2H Saltend), will be executed at Saltend Chemicals Park near the city of Hull. In its initial phase, it will deploy a 600-MW auto thermal reformer (ATR) with carbon capture to convert natural gas to hydrogen. This will be the largest such plant in the world, according to Equinor.
Industrial customers in the Park will thus be able to fully switch over to hydrogen, while the power plant there will be able to rely on a 30% hydrogen-to-natural gas blend. Equinor expects emissions from the Park to go down by almost 900,000 tonnes per year.
The company notes that ATRs are expected to produce hydrogen at 80% efficiency with a minimum carbon capture efficiency of 95%. It believes that the large-scale value chain in the area around Saltend could reach the capacity for up to 3 GW of blue and green hydrogen.
Eventually, the project will expand to help Saltend Chemicals Park achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2035 and also the wider Humber region to reach net zero by 2040. At that point, a large-scale hydrogen network will be open to both blue and green hydrogen.
Equinor said that the project will be part of the Zero Carbon Humber alliance’s application for public co-funding in the second phase of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which was initiated on June 23. If there is a favourable UK policy, a final investment decision could be made in 2023 and first production could be registered by 2026.
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