United Kingdom – UK Government has handed out £33 million in funding for Eni’s HyNet North West integrated project, aimed at decarbonizing the industrial district in the North-West of England.
The funding covers around 50% of the investment necessary to finalize ongoing planning studies with the aim of the site becoming operational by 2025. Alongside Eni, the HyNet North West project is being led by a consortium of regionally- located industrial companies.
The site intends to capture, transport and store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing industries and from future production sites for blue hydrogen, as an alternative fuel for heating, electricity generation and transport. The project will be the first carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure in the UK.
Eni will play a pivotal role as part of the consortium by transporting and storing the CO2 in its depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, located at around 18 miles offshore in Liverpool Bay, for which the company was awarded a carbon storage licence by the UK Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) in October 2020.
Once operational, the project will help reduce CO2 emissions by up to 10 million tonnes every year by 2030, delivering 80% of the Government’s new UK-wide target of 5GW of low carbon hydrogen and playing a crucial role in the target of Net Zero emissions at 2050.
