United Kingdom – Uniper and Shell have agreed to move forward with plans to produce blue hydrogen at Uniper’s Killingholme power station in East Anglia.
In the Humber region, the hydrogen produced could be used to decarbonize industry, transportation, and power. The Humber Hub Blue project calls for a blue hydrogen production facility with a capacity of up to 720 megawatts that will use gas reformation technology with carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The captured carbon would be fed into the East Coast Cluster’s proposed Zero Carbon Humber onshore pipeline, which was recently chosen as one of two CCS clusters to receive initial government support under the government’s cluster sequencing process.
The Humber Hub Blue Project recently met the government’s cluster sequencing process’ Phase-2 eligibility criteria. From May 2022, successful projects that may be eligible for government funding will be shortlisted. Projects in Phase 2 are expected to make final investment decisions in 2024 and begin operations in 2027.
Hydrogen economy in Europe
CCS could capture around 1.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) of carbon per year at Killingholme’s blue hydrogen production. The UK government has set a goal of capturing 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.
The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding signed by both companies in 2021 to explore accelerating the development of a hydrogen economy in Europe. Shell and Uniper will now jointly progress process design studies and site development activity, with a view to taking the project to front end engineering and design by 2023.
