INEOS advances low-carbon hydrogen plans at Grangemouth

Jake Stones

27-Jan-2022

LONDON(ICIS)–UK chemicals company INEOS is inviting engineering contractors to tender for the next stage of design of a carbon, capture and storage (CCS) enabled low-carbon hydrogen plant at the Grangemouth cluster, according to a company announcement on 27 January.

LOW-CARBON HYDROGEN PRODUCTION

The hydrogen plant is expected to be online by 2030, however the concept depends heavily on the Acorn Project, a CCS and hydrogen project in the north of Scotland, progressing ahead of 2030.

The Acorn Project will then facilitate the storage of the captured carbon emissions from the hydrogen production at Grangemouth.

Speaking to ICIS in September 2021 when INEOS first announced low-carbon hydrogen production at the site, Andrew Gardner, CEO and chairman of INEOS at Grangemouth, said that low-carbon hydrogen production at could reach around 150,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year.

This would put the capacity of the plant at around 700MW at higher heating value, ICIS data showed.

However, the total capacity of the plant at Grangemouth will be a subject of the engineering study.

HYDROGEN DEMAND AND MOVING FROM NATURAL GAS

The hydrogen plant coincides with £500m (€599m) of INEOS investment in new projects at Grangemouth. The pledged spending includes a new power plant, due to commission in 2023.

The power plant is designed with high-efficiency technology that will help to reduce emissions at the cluster. However, INEOS aims to convert the plant to run on hydrogen in the future, further reducing emissions.

The hydrogen at Grangemouth will also be able to support wider decarbonisation at the site, including existing power capacity, the KG ethylene plant and assets at the Petroineos refinery, the INEOS announcement stated.

This would likely take shape via the phaseout of directly using hydrocarbons.

However, if the hydrogen plant aims to reform natural gas, then overall use of natural gas could increase.

This is because the conversion process of producing low-carbon hydrogen is less efficient than direct use of natural gas.

According to data from National Grid, industrial gas offtake at Grangemouth has averaged around 1.02 million cubic metres (mcm)/day between 1 October 2021 and 25 January 2022. To produce the equivalent amount of energy as hydrogen, roughly 1.20mcm/day of natural gas would be required.

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