A low carbon hydrogen facility has been created at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, converting natural gas and fuel gases from the Stanlow Refinery and converting them to hydrogen, with carbon dioxide captured and stored offshore in sub-surface reservoirs in Liverpool Bay.

In the joint venture, Essar, and Progressive Energy, developers of the HyNet North West industrial decarbonisation cluster, the hydrogen production hub will provide Essar Oil UK with low carbon hydrogen to decarbonise its own energy demand in addition to creating a hydrogen economy across North West England and North East Wales.

The hydrogen hub will initially produce 3TWh of low carbon hydrogen each year from 2025. This will be quickly followed by a facility twice this size giving a total capacity of over 9TWh of hydrogen per annum. A total investment of approximately £750m will be committed to deliver the two hydrogen production hubs. Follow on capacity growth is planned to reach 80 per cent of the Government’s new target of 5GW of low carbon hydrogen for power, transport, industry and homes by 2030.

The project will use Johnson Matthey’s best in class Low Carbon Hydrogen (LCH) technology. In partnership with SNC-Lavalin, engineering is well advanced with funding provided by the UK Government’s hydrogen supply competition.

Chris Manson-Whitton, Director at Progressive Energy said: “We cannot reach net-zero without decarbonising industry. Today brings a key milestone in that journey as Progressive Energy and Essar Oil UK sign a memorandum of understanding setting out how we will work together to deliver this exciting project at Stanlow Refinery.”

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