The Humber’s emerging hydrogen role has been flagged up as one of the first successes of the North Sea Transition Deal.
A forerunner in the national fuel-switching strategy, mass production and distribution across the most polluting industrial cluster in the UK forms part of a dual plan that will see carbon emissions captured and stored beneath the sea bed.
It could also open the door to cleaning up shipping, heavy transport and home networks as uses are explored beyond intensive power production and manufacturing processes.
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Deirdre Michie OBE, chief executive of Offshore Energies UK, one of the architects of the deal, said its one-year assessment suggested it would generate up to £16 billion in private sector investments, reduce CO2 emissions by 60 million tonnes and generate 40,000 new jobs. The regions chosen to develop the first technology clusters will be among the biggest beneficiaries, the trade body recently rebranded from Oil and Gas UK highlighted.
Ms Michie said: “Zero Carbon Humber, a partnership between industry and academia to build a net zero industrial region, is among the first successes of the North Sea Transition Deal, an agreement between the UK Government and its offshore energies industries that was signed just one year ago, and which has just been subjected to a one-year assessment of progress.
“These three regions are pioneering technologies that achieve both aims. If we can clean up our own natural gas by turning it into hydrogen, and permanently storing the waste CO2, then the North Sea can become a secure source of low-carbon energy from gas. That’s in addition to the huge success of offshore wind which is set to quadruple by 2030 and which is proving a huge national success.
“The dreadful war and tragic events in Ukraine also underlines the fact that the UK must minimise its reliance on imported energy. The climate crisis means we must also continue cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
“I want to thank and support the people and businesses for their commitment to developing these technologies. Just one year after signing the North Sea Transition Deal, a greener future is beginning to take shape for the UK.”
Equinor is leading a 14-strong group of businesses as part of Zero Carbon Humber, which forms part of the East Coast Cluster, uniting with Teesside.
Ms Michie said the Transition Deal opened the way for Zero Carbon Humber to win government funding to build systems for these green technologies. The project is expected to protect 55,000 existing jobs in The Humber and create 49,000 new jobs, all while supporting skills, apprenticeships and educational opportunities in the region.
Under the scheme, the Humber Estuary will become home to the world’s largest hydrogen production plant at PX Group’s Saltend Chemicals Park, with Equinor converting natural gas to hydrogen. Saltend will also become the starting point for a hydrogen and CO2 pipeline network connecting industries across the region - as far west as Drax, North and South Bank - giving them the option to either switch to hydrogen fuel or capture their CO2.
The project will deploy carbon capture technologies to safely store the CO2 generated in hydrogen production. CO2 will be compressed at Centrica’s Easington site and then pumped into pipes that will carry it out into the North Sea, where it will be pumped into a bedrock a mile under the seabed for permanent storage.
It comes as part of the scheme, SSE’s carbon capture power station at Keadby, North Lincolnshire, was deemed eligible for phase two funding from BEIS.
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