Chemicals group Ineos is advancing plans for a blue hydrogen plant at its Grangemouth refining and petrochemicals complex in Scotland by inviting bids for the project’s engineering-design contract.

Ineos unveiled proposals in September last year for the 150,000t/yr blue hydrogen plant, aimed at decarbonising its operations with an investment of £500mn ($685mn). The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in 2030.

“We are inviting bids from the best engineering companies to design both a state-of-the-art carbon capture-enabled hydrogen production plant and an extensive suite of related infrastructure projects,” says Stuart Collings, CEO of Ineos’ UK olefin and polymer subsidiary. Grangemouth, which also includes the Forties North Sea oil and gas pipeline system, is targeting net zero by 2045.

Critical to the site’s blue hydrogen plant is its proposed link to the Scottish Cluster Acorn CO₂ transport and storage project, which missed out on the UK government’s first round carbon capture and storage (CCS) funding, announced in October.

150,000t/yr – Proposed annual capacity of blue hydrogen plant

The government has committed to providing £1bn ($1.4bn) to support two industrial clusters with CCS by the mid-2020s in the first phase, with a further two by 2030 in the second.

Acorn was given only reserve status in the first round, barring it from negotiating revenue mechanisms with the UK Treasury and leaving it with no guarantee of securing second round funding.

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon wrote to UK prime minister Boris Johnson in November, calling for him to award the Acorn project track-one status “without delay”.

“We are fully committed to the Scottish Cluster CCS project. We believe it will be an important part of both Scotland and the UK’s drive to net zero,” Collings says. Grangemouth would provide 1mn t CO₂/year to Acorn.

The Grangemouth project would feed hydrogen into the site’s existing combined heat and power plant, the KG Ethylene plant at the Petroineos refinery.

“This will require a new hydrogen distribution network throughout the site and modifications to the existing fuel gas network, all of which are captured within the scope of the engineering design,” Ineos says.

The scope of design is also planned to provide capability to link the hydrogen production to third parties in the local area to support development of a local hydrogen hub.

Hydrogen would also feed a new hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plant, which is already under construction at Grangemouth and scheduled to start up in 2023.

---

Author: Stuart Penson