Image courtesy: Zero Carbon Humber
Equinor has awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for H2H Saltend to Linde Engineering, and an operation and maintenance service contract to hydrogen supplier BOC.
H2H Saltend is a 600MW low-carbon hydrogen production plant with carbon capture and is sited at the Saltend Chemicals Park, to the east of Hull in northeast Humber region of England.
The plant is scheduled to be operational by 2027 and will allow for the storage of 890,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The project will reduce the park’s emissions by up to one third, according to Equinor, by replacing natural gas in several industrial facilities with low-carbon hydrogen.
Gas and hydrogen blends also will be used at Equinor and SSE Thermal’s on-site Saltend Power Station.
The plant design will use Linde Engineering’s hydrogen and air separation technologies, which will be combined with UK-based Johnson Matthey’s LCH technology. The plant will be operated and maintained by BOC.
Asbjørn Haugsgjerd, Equinor’s project director for the H2H Saltend project, said: “H2H Saltend is a vital first step in creating a low carbon hydrogen economy and achieving net zero in the Humber, safeguarding local industries and creating greater opportunities, whilst helping the UK to tackle climate change.
“With Linde Engineering, BOC and Johnson Matthey on board we are even better positioned to deliver this vision.”
H2H Saltend is part of the wider Zero Carbon Humber scheme, which will provide regional infrastructure to transport hydrogen to industrial customers seeking to reduce their emissions, whilst also capturing carbon dioxide for sub-sea storage as part of the East Coast Cluster.
According to Equinor, these projects aim to make the carbon-intensive Humber net-zero by 2040.
The contracts were awarded to Linde Engineering and BOC based on their participation in a design competition to provide proposals for FEED with options for engineering, procurement and construction and operation and maintenance for the first five years.
Linde has installed over 200 hydrogen fuelling stations and 80 hydrogen electrolysis plants worldwide and BOC has experience in ensuring reliable operation of hydrogen plants in the Humber region.
Reducing Humber’s emissions
The Humber is the most carbon-intensive industrial cluster in the UK and according to Zero Carbon Humber, generates £18 billion ($22.3 billion) of the UK’s economy each year, driven largely by industrial processes.
The Humber and wider Yorkshire region are looking to hydrogen as a low carbon fuel to decarbonise transport and heating, as well as for short term energy storage.
Projects in the area are therefore aimed at developing the necessary infratsurture to create a functional hydrogen economy to drive scale and competitive hydrogen production.
