The Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor ASA wants to build a large-scale plant in the UK to produce hydrogen from natural gas in combination with carbon capture and offshore storage (CCS). The project, called Hydrogen to Humber Saltend (H2H Saltend), is the start of the journey to decarbonise the Humber region, the UK's largest industrial region in terms of emissions, the company said.
The project will be located at the Saltend chemical park near the city of Hull on the east coast of England and will include in its first phase a 600 megawatt auto-thermo-reformer (ATR) with carbon capture; According to Equinor, “the world’s largest plant of its kind for converting natural gas into hydrogen.” It enables the local industry to switch completely to hydrogen. The gas power plant can mix 30 percent hydrogen with natural gas, which reduces emissions at the site by almost 900.000 tons of CO2 per year. The PX Group is the owner and operator of the Saltend Chemical Park.
After the pilot phase, H2H Saltend will be expanded with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions in the Humber industrial region to zero by 2040. To this end, a large-scale hydrogen network should be installed that is open to both blue hydrogen (produced from natural gas with CCS) and green hydrogen (produced by electrolysis of water using renewable energy), as well as a network for the transport and storage of the captured hydrogen CO2 emissions. It is estimated that a fuel switch to hydrogen could create 43.000 new job opportunities in energy-intensive industrial sectors across the UK. Subject to political support (including financial) for H2H Saltend, Equinor and its partners will continue to develop the project until a final investment decision is made in the course of 2023. Hydrogen production could then begin in 2026.
The oil and gas company Equinor ASA, which is majority owned by the Norwegian state, was created in 2018 from the merger of the state-owned company Statoil and the natural gas and oil activities of Norsk Hydro.
Deep link:
https://www.equinor.com/en/news/plan-for-world-leading-clean-hydrogen-plant-in-the-uk.html
Photos:
Saltend Chemicals Park / © PX Group
