Uniper and Shell UK Limited (Shell) are progressing their Humber H₂ub project, which aims to produce low-carbon H₂ using gas reformation with carbon capture technology at Uniper’s Killingholme power station site on the South Humber bank.

Air Liquide Engineering & Construction, Shell Catalysts & Technologies and Technip Energies have been awarded contracts to deliver the process design studies. This is to include design of the main H₂ production and carbon capture plant for the proposed Humber H₂ub project.

The three companies will participate in a competition to engineer the technology and plant design needed for the project to move to the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase, ahead of a final investment decision expected to be taken in the mid-2020s. The selected company at the end of the design competition will become the Humber H₂ub project’s preferred low-carbon H₂ production technology provider during FEED, engineering, procurement and construction and into the operation of the plant.

The Humber H₂ub project includes plans for a low-carbon H₂ production facility using gas reformation technology with carbon capture and storage (CCS), with a capacity of up to 720 megawatts. The H₂ produced could be used to decarbonize industry, transport and power throughout the Humber region.

CCS-enabled hydrogen production at Killingholme could see the capture of around 1.6 MMtpy of carbon from the production process. The UK Government has set a target to capture and store 20 MMtpy—30 MMtpy of carbon by 2030.

Guy Phillips, Uniper Senior Business Development Manager, Hydrogen, said, “The award of PDP contracts represents a significant step towards our plans for low-carbon hydrogen production at Killingholme. This will help to decarbonize the UK’s largest CO₂ emitting industrial region. Hydrogen will be one of the solutions to achieve the UK’s target of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and the Humber region and this project, will contribute to achieving it.”

Paul Black, Business Development Manager for Upstream, Integrated Gas and New Energies at Shell, said, “It’s never been more important to explore new ways to use the UK’s natural gas together with carbon capture technology. And we are making strong progress with Uniper to do this. We aim to build hydrogen production to boost the country’s long-term energy security and decarbonize heavy industry, transport and power in the Humber region. This forms part of Shell’s broader intent to build a global leading hydrogen business, which has included work starting in 2022 to build Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant in the Netherlands.”

The Humber H₂ub project forms part of Uniper’s Energy Transformation Hub Killingholme, which will bring together our overall plans for shaping low carbon energy development at the site.