Industrial gases company Air Products and port operator Associated British Ports have launched a project to develop a large-scale green hydrogen production facility using imported green ammonia as feedstock at the port of Immingham on England’s northeast coast. The target startup date for the project is 2027, pending FID.

"We are in positive talks with government ministers and officials about our plans to invest in UK green hydrogen. To enable our investment decision, we are seeking some policy assurances that a viable market will exist for our product," says Ivo Bols, Air Products' president for Europe and Africa.

The green hydrogen would be aimed at the mobility sector, especially trucks and buses, Air Products says.

300MW – Potential capacity of plant

“The facility could contribute up to 300MW of hydrogen production capacity towards the government’s UK hydrogen strategy objective of achieving 10GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. The capacity development will depend on the growth in the market,” the company tells Hydrogen Economist.

Green ammonia for the project would be imported to Immingham from sites operated by Air Products and its partners around the world.

As part of the project, ABP will invest in new infrastructure, including a jetty for the import or export of liquid bulk products. In addition to handling green ammonia, the jetty is being designed to take imports of liquefied CO₂ for sequestration in the North Sea.

Immingham sits within the UK's East Coast Cluster and close to proposed offshore transport and storage networks for CO₂.

Overall, the project will bring up to $4.6bn in benefits to the region and provide 1,400 direct jobs and approximately 1,600 indirect jobs in supply chains and local businesses, Air Products says.

Air Products is already developing a potential 800MW blue hydrogen project at Immingham together with power generator VPI. The majority of the hydrogen produced by the project, which is called H3, would be used to decarbonise the third train at VPI’s planned 1.2GW gas-fired combined-heat-and-power plant at Immingham.

The project has submitted an application for first-strand funding as part of the UK’s Net Zero Hydrogen Fund.

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Author: Stuart Penson