Zero Carbon Humber: from conception to reality
As we celebrate Net Zero Week across the UK, we invite Equinor’s project manager for Zero Carbon Humber, Ian Livingston to discuss the project’s progress in making Humber a Net-Zero Industrial region by 2040
The SuperPlace
Zero Carbon Humber secured £21.5M of public funding from UKRI’s Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge (IDC) fund back in March 2021. Since then, a lot has happened. The Humber is uniquely placed to deliver a low-carbon economy, it is the ultimate ‘SuperPlace’ where renewables, CCS and hydrogen come together.
The original Zero Carbon Humber partnership comprised 12 partners including Equinor, Drax Group, Mitsubishi Power, National Grid Ventures, PX Group, SSE Thermal, Triton Power, Uniper, Associated British Ports, British Steel, Centrica Storage, and the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).
Since its inception the partnership has grown to include INEOS Acetyls and Velocys who share the group’s aims around industrial decarbonisation. Several other organisations have expressed an interest in joining, potentially growing the collaboration further.
Meeting its ambitions
Zero Carbon Humber, as part of the wider East Coast Cluster, was awarded Track-1 status in Phase One of the BEIS Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) Cluster Sequencing Process, alongside Hynet Northwest. This was a critical step for Zero Carbon Humber, securing access to the CO2 storage infrastructure which will make industrial decarbonisation on the scale needed by the Humber possible.
The two critical pipelines to carry carbon dioxide and low-carbon hydrogen across the region (Humber Low Carbon Pipelines), being developed by National Grid Ventures, have been through non-statutory consultation and the route of the pipelines has been agreed as a result. Front End Engineering Design (FEED) has commenced on the pipelines to add technical detail and maturity to the early designs.
Collaboration is key
Our consortium partners have been worked hard in bringing the different aspects of the project together:
- H2H Saltend, Equinor’s flagship 600MW blue hydrogen production plant, located at Saltend Chemicals Park, has also held public consultation and supply chain events whilst also undertaking a Pre-FEED design competition, with an award expected later this year.
- AMRC has conducted a Supply Chain Readiness assessment and developed pilot programmes for Fit4Hydrogen and Fit4CCUS, aimed at building capability to support the low-carbon transition in industrial clusters from a UK manufacturing supplier base.
- DRAX BECCS (Bio Energy Carbon Capture and Storage) project has consulted on its required Development Consent order and entered feasibility stage with its selected contractor.
- SSE Thermal and Equinor’s Keadby 3 post combustion power station has consulted on its required Development Consent order, published an economic impact report and selected its FEED contractor.
- Uniper has progressed its blue and green Hydrogen Hub project in the Immingham area.
- British Steel has published their decarbonisation roadmap.
Making it a reality
Several of the ZCH projects have conducted supplier events, giving visibility of project requirements to suppliers both locally and nationally.
So, it’s been a busy 15 months across the partnership, but keeping pace and momentum is vital to us achieving a net-zero industrial cluster in the Humber by 2040. The spotlight is on the Humber with various international eyes watching how we progress the projects from conception into reality. We have a great opportunity to share early learning with other industrial clusters about how collaboration around a common goal of developing shared low carbon infrastructure can accelerate decarbonisation.
UKRI Grant Funding for these early phase industrial decarbonisation projects is vital to help balance the risk of developing projects in absence of confirmed business models. Alongside other UKRI IDC grant funded programmes, including Humber Industrial Cluster Plan, Humber Zero, the Northern Endurance Partnership and Net-Zero Teesside we continue to drive towards a net-zero industrial cluster by 2040.
Want to know more?
Zero Carbon Humber is supported under the Industrial Decarbonisation challenge, part of the UKRI Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. ISCF addresses the big societal challenges being faced by UK businesses today, backed by £2.6 billion of public money, with £3 billion in matched funding from the private sector. You can read more about what we do here.
