Emissions reduction | UK majors on hydrogen hubs...


The UK has published a new strategy that would see it as a major producer and user of both green and blue hydrogen. What does it mean for the power sector?


Janet Wood


In August the UK published a long-awaited hydrogen strategy. It suggested plans for a hydrogen economy were still very much a work in progress, with further consultations on business models, support for early projects and hydrogen standards. But it said, “We recognise the importance of a clear goal alongside long term policy frameworks in bringing forward low carbon technologies. Our ambition for 5 GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 is a signal of the government’s firm commitment to work with industry to develop a strong and enduring UK hydrogen economy.” The strategy, developed by BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) is in firm support of a hydrogen production industry for the UK – hardly surprising, given the UK’s past experience as a gas producer. It says “the UK cannot, and would not want to, rely solely on low carbon hydrogen imports. An over-reliance on imports could create risks around the security of supply for hydrogen and associated investment in the wider value chain. It would also reduce opportunities for UK companies to leverage domestic capabilities and strengths and translate these into clean growth opportunities.”


But the complex task of the strategy is to grow hydrogen supply and demand together. As a result, the government sees an important role for blue hydrogen, in which hydrogen is produced from methane using steam methane reforming (SMR) with, crucially, a carbon capture and storage (CCUS) route for the CO2


produced.


The need to grow CCUS and SMR together is why emerging consortia developing hydrogen are also, in most cases, CCUS consortia, with power generation used to provide market ‘pull’ for the CCUS infrastructure.


The support for blue hydrogen disappointed some in the industry, but it was clearly twin- tracked with green hydrogen – ie, produced by electrolysis using renewables – which was seen as the longer term solution. The strategy says, “Deploying CCUS-enabled hydrogen capacity will achieve cost-effective near-term low carbon hydrogen production at scale, drive investment across the value chain (including transmission, distribution and storage), and pull a range of hydrogen technologies through to commercialisation. Alongside this, supporting the scale up of electrolytic hydrogen production can drive down costs to establish a cost-optimal and credible technology mix for our pathway to net zero.”


A major driver behind the government’s hydrogen strategy is its need to decarbonise


industry. That requires hydrogen to replace fossil fuels (largely gas) for industrial processes. Heavily industrial areas that also have relatively easy access to offshore sites where carbon dioxide can be stored are expected to be the most economic sites to develop initial CCUS and large-scale hydrogen facilities. In an earlier strategy the government identified six ‘industrial clusters’, around Grangemouth, Teesside, Humberside, Merseyside, South Wales and Southampton. Each has a different history and a different flavour to its hydrogen or CCUS plans.


The industrial cluster on the Scottish west coast has two main centres. At industrial Grangemouth the aim is to bring together hydrogen with other facilities. Carbon captured from this group of industries would be transported north by pipeline to Peterhead, a site that has long been investigated as a front-runner for CCUS. Peterhead is now a lead option for investment in CCGT-with-CCUS and hydrogen production (see below), which would see the carbon dioxide stored in the Acorn depleted offshore oil field.


At Teesside, on England’s northeast coast, the chemicals industry already produces and uses half the UK’s industrial hydrogen. Teesside and a second industrial cluster further south on Humberside together represent a significant proportion of the CO2


emissions produced by the six industrial clusters referred to above. Each


is the focus for a hydrogen production and CO2 disposal consortium – Net Zero Teesside and Zero Carbon Humber, respectively – and the two are collaborating with Northern Endurance Partnership (which aims to repurpose offshore oil and gas sites for CO2


disposal) in the East


Coast Cluster. Each has a new power generation project that has progressed into the planning process (see below). But both also already encompass existing power facilities that may be converted to zero carbon. Zero Carbon Humber includes both Saltend, which is aiming at conversion to hydrogen before the end of the decade, and Drax, whose projects include biomass with CCUS (BECCS).


The Merseyside industrial cluster on the west coast is relatively small in emissions but it overlaps with the major cities of Liverpool and Manchester and is a key area for underground gas storage. Local industry is looking for low- carbon gas supplies but the area is also the focus for HyNet, one of several major initiatives exploring replacing methane with hydrogen in GB’s extensive natural gas domestic supply network.


16 | September 2021 | www.modernpowersystems.com


Grangemouth 5.0 MtCO2


e


Teesside 3.9 MtCO2


Merseyside 5.0 MtCO2


e


e


Humberside 10.0 MtCO2


e


South Wales 8.9 MtCO2


e


Southampton 3.2 MtCO2


e


Above: The six industrial clusters identified by the UK government, and their estimated annual carbon dioxide emissions


The industrial cluster in South Wales is the largest in geographic terms, with a need to pipe gases large distances and relatively little large industry, while Southampton is the smallest cluster identified by the government in carbon dioxide terms terms. That is likely to place them in the second rank as the government chooses where to invest in lead projects.


Alongside these major clusters, other regions have tried to pick up the hydrogen opportunity.


Among them: ● East Anglia. This region already houses a gas interconnector, at Bacton, and EDF’s nuclear site at Sizewell, as well as a growing array of multi-GW offshore wind farms. Promoters have somewhat different agendas: Oil and Gas UK sees the interconnector as a ‘credible’ option for hydrogen export/import; options around the planned Sizewell C nuclear plant include hydrogen production for the region’s important goods transport industry; and the wind industry has its eyes on green hydrogen production as an option for managing constrained days or arbitraging with offshore wind.


● Aberdeen. A hydrogen assessment by the Scottish government noted that Aberdeen, Orkney, Glasgow and Dundee all had hydrogen clusters forming. Aberdeen has support from the Scottish government and Aberdeen city not least because of the city and region’s status as an offshore oil and gas centre. It has huge expertise and investment


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