Uniper and Shell join forces to develop blue hydrogen in the UK
Energy titans Uniper and Shell have teamed up to produce blue hydrogen at Uniper’s Killingholme power station in Lincolnshire, England.
The hydrogen produced could be used to decarbonise industry, transport and power throughout the Humber region.
The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding signed by both companies last year to explore accelerating the development of a hydrogen economy in Europe.
forecasting the the capture of around 1.6m metric tonnes (Mt) of carbon a year.
The government has set a target to capture 10 Mt of carbon a year by 2030.
As part of the freshly unveiled energy security strategy, it is also pledging to boost hydrogen generation to 10GW over the same time period.
Energy firms have big plans for hydrogen
Blue hydrogen is developed when natural gas is split into hydrogen and CO2 either by steam methane reforming or auto thermal reforming.
The CO2 is captured and then stored, mitigating the environmental impacts on the planet.
Uniper’s Humber Hub Blue project includes plans for a blue hydrogen production facility with a capacity of up to 720 megawatts (MW), using gas reformation technology with carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The captured carbon would be fed through the proposed Zero Carbon Humber onshore pipeline, part of its East Coast Cluster.
The Humber Hub Blue Project recently passed the eligibility criteria for Phase 2 of the government’s cluster sequencing process.
Successful projects which could be eligible for government funding will be shortlisted from May 2022.
Phase-2 projects are expected to take final investment decisions from 2024 to then be operational from 2027.
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.
Minister of state for business, energy and clean growth Greg Hands said: “We’ve set ambitious targets for hydrogen production in our British Energy Security Strategy and are investing £360m in innovative energy technologies to get us there. Today’s announcement shows real confidence in hydrogen – creating high-quality jobs to level up the Humberside region, based on this clean, cutting-edge new super fuel.”