The Saltend Chemicals Park —where H2H Saltend, utility Equinor’s flagship blue hydrogen plant in the UK will be located—could also become the site of a green hydrogen plant in the future, according to site operator PX Group.

Equinor has formally submitted plans for its H2H Saltend blue hydrogen production facility for government approval. Last month it awarded pre-Feed study contracts to three selected contractors: a KBR and Tecnimont consortium, a Technip Energies-led consortium and Linde. FID is expected in 2023.

PX has set aside land within its site at the Saltend Chemicals Park in northeast England for the H2H Saltend plant. The project will provide hydrogen to a number of existing customers with operations in the park including chemicals firm Ineos, rare earth processor Pensana, utility Triton Power and renewable bioethanol fuel producer Vivergo Fuels.

An existing grey hydrogen production unit at the chemicals park will be decommissioned as its hydrogen output is replaced by blue hydrogen supplied by H2H Saltend.

“We’re very interested in green hydrogen” Holmes, PX

Some of this supply could also come from green hydrogen in the future, according to Geoff Holmes, CEO of PX.

“We’re very interested in green hydrogen,” he says. “The reality is that blue hydrogen is scalable today and will provide supply immediately, but the long-term solution has to be green.”

Equinor has set a provisional plan to produce green hydrogen at Saltend, though this will not happen in the first phase of the project.

PX is currently looking to expand the site to house a green energy park, which could potentially accommodate any new facilities constructed at a later date. “We have more transition projects than we can accommodate at Saltend,” says Holmes.

First phase

The Saltend Chemicals Park is part of an industrial cluster known as Zero Carbon Humber. In October, the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) announced that the East Coast Cluster, of which Zero Carbon Humber forms a part, was one of two successful national bids in the first track of its £1bn ($1.35bn) carbon capture and storage (CCS) competition.

CCS is a vital component of H2H Saltend, allowing it to store CO₂ generated during hydrogen production under the North Sea.

The H2H Saltend project will enable fuel switching from gas to low-carbon hydrogen in 2026-2027, reducing Saltend’s emissions by 900,000 t/yr CO₂—nearly 30pc of the site’s total emissions.

The onsite Triton Power Station will switch from natural gas to co-fire 30pc hydrogen in its existing three turbines before constructing a fourth turbine that will run on 100pc hydrogen sometime after 2030. This will enable Saltend to have net-zero emissions.

900,000 t/yr – Reduction in CO₂ emissions from Saltend

Equinor foresees H2H Saltend as the first site in a network of regional hydrogen and CO₂ pipelines. And the company has kickstarted the development of this infrastructure across Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.

A hydrogen storage project at nearby Aldbrough could enable domestic heating to switch from gas to hydrogen in towns across Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, an option being explored with partners Cadent and Northern Gas Networks.

Equinor also plans to supply hydrogen to Keadby Hydrogen power station, expected to start up in 2028-29.

The Zero Carbon Humber project includes fourteen organisations committed to making the Humber the world’s first net-zero region by 2040. Humberside is currently the UK’s highest-emitting industrial cluster with 12.4mn t/yr of CO₂ emissions.

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Author: Tom Young