Latest News on the UK Hydrogen Economy - 21/04/22

Ames Goldsmith Ceimig, as a manufacturer of catalysts such as Iridium Oxide, Iridium Ruthenium Oxide, Iridium Black, Platinum Black & Platinum on Carbon support, are strong supports of the emerging Hydrogen Economy and supply many manufacturers of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) technology including PEM Electrolysers and PEM Fuel Cells.

In the UK we are members of the UKHFCA & SHFCA. Here are some of the recent developments in Hydrogen happening in the UK and affecting the Hydrogen Economy more broadly:

UK Government unveils new energy security strategy doubling low-carbon hydrogen production to 10GW by 2030 - Weblink

The UK Government has released new plans to raise domestic low-carbon hydrogen production from 5GW to 10GW by 2030 with half to be completely green.

Revealed as part of new plans to gain energy independence in light of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, targeting 10GW of low-carbon hydrogen production could be crucial to scaling the UK’s hydrogen industry.

When the hydrogen strategy had been first released in August 2021, many in the industry argued the aims were not ambition enough and this should be raised to attract larger investment.

ITM Power unveils new joint venture to expand the UK’s green hydrogen refuelling network - Weblink

In a move to secure further hydrogen refuelling infrastructure for the UK, ITM Power has agreed a 50/50 joint venture today (March 23) with Vitol Holdings with an initial investment of £30m ($39m).

This initial investment will be matched by ITM Power in a similar move with hopes that the joint venture, dubbed ITM Motive, will enable the creation of further refuelling stations and accelerate the adoption of fuel cell vehicles.

As part of the transaction, ITM Power will supply Motive with 240MW of electrolysis equipment in order to support the roll out of green hydrogen refuelling stations across the UK.

Rapid expansion of green hydrogen refuelling networks within the UK is forecasted in the future with hydrogen set to soar in popularity in the coming years.

Saltend Chemicals Park secures another site partner as part of Humberside’s Carbon Capture Storage future - Weblink

Saltend Chemicals Park, owned and operated by px Group, revealed that it has been selected as the site by Future Biogas, the biogas plant developer and operations specialists, to construct up to 32 new CO2 storage tanks at the Park in an investment worth tens of millions of pounds.

Future Biogas’ storage facility will facilitate the temporary storage of 200,000 tonnes of liquified CO2 annually by mid-2025, and up to 400,000 tonnes of CO2 by the end of 2028. The CO2 is a by-product of Anaerobic Digestion plants and will be captured and liquified at the facilities operated by Future Biogas. As part of the development, px Group will be involved in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the infrastructure at the Park, and potentially the CO2 storage facility itself. The development now goes into FEED (Front End Engineering Design) stage.

Shell, Uniper partner on UK low-carbon hydrogen facility - Weblink

German utility Uniper and Shell will team up to jointly produce low-carbon hydrogen at a Uniper power station in Britain in a bid to boost use of the fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The project, located at Uniper's Killingholme power station in the East of England, will include a blue hydrogen production facility with a capacity of up to 720 megawatts - enough to heat more than half a million homes a year - using gas reformation technology with carbon capture and storage (CCS).

So-called blue hydrogen is produced by converting natural gas into hydrogen and storing the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its production. The UK Government has set a target to capture 10 million tonnes of CO2 a year by 2030 through CCS.